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THE 


DOCTRINES  AND  POLITY 


OF  THK 


METHODIST  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH,  SOUTH. 


PART  FIRST 

BY  REV.  WILBUR  F.'TILLETT,  D.D., 
Dean  of  the  Theological  Faculty  of  Vanderbilt  University. 

PART  SECOND 

BY  REV.  JAMES  ATKINS.  D.D., 

Sun,day  School  Editor. 


Nashville,  Tenn.;  Dallas,  Tex.: 
PuBLisBiNQ  House  of  the  M.  E.  Chcbch,  Sooth. 
Bmith  &  Lauar,  Aoentb. 
1906. 


CoPTRtOHTKO  BY 

BioHAM  &  Smith,  Agkktk 
1903. 


CONTENTS, 


PART  FIRST. 

The  Doctrines  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Chubch,  South. 

Paqe 

Preface 2 

I.  Introduction:  The  Distinguishing 
Doctrines  and  Features  of  Meth- 
odist Theology 3 

II.  The  Holy  Scriptures 12 

III.  The  Doctrine  of  God 23 

IV.  The  Bible  Doctrine  of  Man 36 

V,  Christ  the  Redeemer 46 

VI.  The   Doctrines  Pertaining  to   Per- 
sonal Salvation 57 

VII.  The  Doctrine  of  the  Future  Life 70 

VIII.  The  Doctrine  of  the  Church 83 


PART  SECOND. 

The  Polity  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Chubch,  South. 

Preface 92 

I.  The  General  Rules. .,.,,., 93 

(iii) 


IV  COWTENTS. 

Paok 

II.  The  Conferences  of  Methodism 118 

General  Boards 125 

III.  The  Itinerancy 128 

IV.  Our  Ministry 138 

V.  Our  Connectionalism 144 

VI.  Fields  of  Work 156 

Missions 156 

Woman's  Home  Mission  Society 162 

The  Sunday  School 165 

The  Board  of  Church  Extension 168 

The  Epworth  League 169 

The  Board  of  Education 171 

Statistics  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  South   172 


PART  FIRST. 


THE  DOCTRINES 

OF  THE 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 
SOUTH. 


By  Rev.  Wilbur  F.  Tillett,  D.D., 

Dean  of  the  Theological  Faculty  of  Vanderbilt 

University. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

To  write  a  brief  treatise  that  shall  cover  the 
entire  range  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  yet  be 
neither  a  bare  and  dry  skeleton,  on  the  one  hand, 
nor  a  dull,  superficial  statement  of  mere  common- 
places, on  the  other,  is  the  difficult  task  that  has 
been  assigned  to  the  author  in  this  little  volume. 
In  trying  thus  to  combine  brevity,  clearness,  and 
completeness  the  author  has  kept  constantly  in 
mind  the  class  of  readers  for  whom  the  volume 
is  intended — viz.,  Sunday  school  teachers,  can- 
didates for  the  ministry,  and  Bible  students  gen- 
erally, who  desire  to  know  what  are  the  cardi- 
nal doctrines  of  the  Bible  as  it  is  interpreted  by 
the  great  body  of  evangelical  Christian  believers. 

That  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  rightly  in- 
terpreted, and  the  doctrines  of  Methodism, 
rightly  stated,  are  one  and  the  same,  this  writer 
steadfastly  believes,  and  in  that  faith  this  trea- 
tise has  been  written,  and  is  now  sent  forth  in 
the  humble  hope  that  it  may  give  to  those  who 
read  ^it  a  greater  faith  in  their  faith,  and  thus 
enable  them  the  better  to  give  to  others  a  reason 
for  the  hope  and  the  faith  that  is  in  them. 

WlLBTTK   F.    TiLLBTT. 


Introduction. 

THE  DISTINGUISEINO  DOCTRINES  AND  FEATURES 
OF  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

Methodism  represents  a  distinct  system  of 
Christian  doctrine,  and  also  a  type  of  Church 
polity.  Methodists  are  not  one  the  world 
over  in  their  ecclesiastical  polity:  some  are 
episcopal,  some  presbyterial,  and  some  congre- 
gational. But  all  Methodists  are  practically 
a  unit  the  world  over  in  the  type  of  theology 
which  they  hold.  Most  of  the  cardinal  doc- 
trines of  Methodism  are  held  in  common  with 
all  evangelical  Christian  Churches.  Such, 
for  example,  are  the  inspiration  and  divine 
authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Triuni- 
ty  of  the  Godhead,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the 
fall  of  man  and  the  universal  sinfulness  of  the 
race,  justification  by  faith,  the  necessity  of 
regeneration,  the  future  and  eternal  existence 
of  all  men  after  death,  and  many  other  simi- 
lar doctrines  of  the  highest  significance. 

But  there  are  certain  other  doctrines  which, 
though  not  held  exclusively  by  Methodists, 
have  at  least  been  more  strongly  emphasized 

(3) 


4  THB    DOCTBINIIS    OF   METHODISM. 

in  the  faith  and  preaching  of  Methodism  than 
in  any  other  branch  of  the  Christian  Church, 
Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  follow- 
ing: the  moral  free  agency  and  accountability 
of  man,  the  unlimited  atonement  of  Christ, 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit  testifying  to  the  re- 
generate man  of  his  acceptance  with  God,  the 
possibility  of  apostasy,  and  the  attainability 
of  entire  holiness  in  this  life. 

Methodism  has  been  the  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  God  of  saving  during  the  century 
and  a  half  of  its  existence  not  less  perhaps 
than  fifteen  to  twenty  millions  of  immortal 
souls.  This  result,  which  is  without  a  prece- 
dent in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church, 
is  to  be  attributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the 
intensely  earnest  and  practical  character  of 
its  theology.  "  It  was  not  new  doctrine  but 
new  life  that  the  Methodists  sought  for  them- 
selves and  for  others,"  says  Bishop  McTyeire 
in  the  opening  sentence  of  his  "History  of 
Methodism."  But  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  has  established  the  fact  that 
progress  in  the  spiritual  life  and  maintenance 
of  sound  doctrine  are  vitally  related  to  each 
other. 

The  doctrinal  system  of  Methodism  is  some- 
times designated   as    "Arminian    theology." 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

This  designation  connects  it  with  the  name  of 
James  Arminius  (1560-1609),  a  noted  theolo- 
gian of  Holland.  As  Martin  Luther  and  his 
fellow-reformers,  although  reared  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  were  led  by  their  enlight- 
ened convictions  to  protest  against  what  they 
considered  the  corrupt  practices  and  false 
teachings  of  this  Church,  and  were  for  that 
reason  called  Protestants,  so  James  Arminius 
and  his  associates,  although  first  instructed  in 
the  strict  teachings  of  high  Calvinism,  felt  com- 
pelled to  utter  a  remonstrance  against  certain 
extreme  Calvinistic  doctrines  concerning  pre- 
destination, election,  reprobation,  etc.,  and 
were  for  that  reason  called  Remonstrants. 
The  celebrated  "five  points"  of  Calvinism, 
setting  forth  the  peculiar  and  distinctive  doc- 
trines of  that  system  of  theology,  were  offset 
by  the  no  less  distinctive  "five  points"  of 
Arminianism,  viz.:  ( 1 )  Conditional  election — 
that  is,  God  elected  to  salvation  those  who,  he 
foresaw,  would  freely  repent  of  their  sins  and 
believe  in  Christ,  and  to  reprobation  those 
whose  willful  impenitence  and  unbelief  .he 
foresaw.  (2)  Jesus  Christ  died  alike  for  all 
men,  but  only  those  who  repent  and  believe 
will  secure  the-  saving  benefits  of  his  atoning 
death.     (3)  The  ability  of  fallen  man  to  re- 


6  THE    DOCTEINBS    OF    METHODISM. 

pent  and  believe  is  of  grace  and  not  of  nature, 
and  spiritual  renewal  or  regeneration  is  en- 
tirely of  the  Spirit's  operation.  (4)  Never- 
theless divine  grace  and  the  influence  of  the 
Spirit  are  not,  as  Calvinism  affirms,  irresistible; 
but  may  be  resisted  by  man,  who  is  a  moral 
free  agent,  and  who,  though  he  may  be  con- 
victed of  sin  against  his  will,  is  never  con- 
verted against  his  will.  (5)  The  possibility 
of  a  truly  regenerated  man  falling  away  from 
his  saved  estate  and  being  finally  lost  was  first 
left  an  open  question,  but  was  soon  decided, 
as  the  logic  of  the  system  required  that  it  should 
be,  in  the  affirmative. 

The  doctrinal  system  of  Methodism  is  also 
designated  as  "Wesleyan  theology."  This 
designation  associates  it  with  the  names  of 
John  and  Charles  Wesley.  John  Wesley 
(1703-1791)  was  perhaps  the  greatest  reform- 
er, preacher,  and  evangelist  that  has  ever  ap- 
peared in  England.  Methodism  is  but  one  of 
the  many  results  that  have  come  from  his  life 
and  labors.  John  Wesley's  theology  was  in- 
tensely evangelical  and  practical,  and,  like 
that  of  the  apostle  Paul,  was  to  a  large  extent 
colored  by  his  own  religious  experience.  He 
accepted  the  system  formulated  by  James  Ar- 
minius  and  the  Remonstrants  of  Holland,  in 


IXTBODUCTION. 


all  the  points  wherein  that  system  differed 
from  Calvinism.     But  he  did  something  more 
for  it  than  accept  it.     Arminian  theology,  as 
it  was  formulated  by  the  Remonstrants,  was, 
as  an  intellectual  system  of  doctrine,  logical, 
self-consistent,  and  true;  but  it  was  cold;  it 
was  lacking  in  the  warmth  and  intensity  of 
spiritual  life;  it  needed  to  be  quickened  by 
the  faith  and  the  fire  of  an  evangelical  experi- 
ence.    This  is  exactly  what  John  Wesley  did 
with  it  and  for  it.     He  carried  it,  as  it  were, 
to  the  altar,  and  there  it  was  baptized  with 
the  Holy  Ghost;  and,  surcharged  with  evan- 
gelical life  and  converting  power,  it  was  sent 
forth  upon  its  world-wide  mission  of  evangel- 
ization.    In  Methodism  we  find  the  doctrines 
of  Arminius  put  into  practice  as  living  truths, 
made  matters  of  personal  religious  experience, 
and  utilized  as  mighty  spiritual  forces  for 
saving  souls  and  spreading  the  kingdom  of 
Christ.     In  Wesleyan  theology  the  intensive 
power  of  the  gospel  to  save  each  individual 
from  all  sin  is  as  much  emphasized  as  is  its  ex- 
tensive power  to  save  all  sinners,  whoever 
they  may  be  and   whenever  and    wherever 
they  may  live. 

In  1784  John  Wesley  reduced  the  thirty- 
nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  to 


»  THE    I>OCTKINES    OF    METHODISM. 

twenty-five  in  number,  and  abridged  and  otli- 
erwise  altered  some  of  those  which  he  retained. 
These  he  sent  to  America  by  Thomas  Coke, 
whom  he  had  ordained  bishop,  and  they  were 
accepted  as  the  general  creed  of  Episcopal 
Methodism  in  America.  They  have  ever 
since  occupied  a  foremost  place  among  our 
doctrinal  standards. 

John  Wesley's  sermons  also  have  always 
been  numbered  among  the  leading  ' '  doctrinal 
standards"  of  Methodism.  They  may  be 
lacking  here  and  there  in  the  accuracy  and 
uniform  self-consistency  of  doctrinal  state- 
ment that  we  have  a  right  to  expect  in  works 
of  dogmatic  theology,  but  what  they  lack  in 
these  respects  they  more  than  gain  in  the 
spiritual  power  that  belongs  to  them  as 
sermons  glowing  with  a  living  Christian  ex- 
perience and  setting  forth  the  great  truths 
that  pertain  to  man's  salvation.  Richard 
Watson's  "Theological  Institutes"  may  not 
be  altogether  up  to  date,  but  they  have  in 
them  a  theology  that  is  well  adapted  to  the 
world's  conversion  and  upbuilding  in  the  spir- 
itual life.  Adam  Clarke,  the  first  great  repre- 
sentative commentator  of  Methodism,  showed 
by  his  able  and  scholarly  expositions  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  how  thoroughly  faithful  to 


INTRODUCTION. 


the  Bible  were  the   doctrinal   teachings   of 
Methodism. 

Charles  Wesley,  the  poet-preacher  and  the- 
ologian, rendered  a  service  to  the  theology  of 
Methodism  scarcely  less  important  and  far- 
reaching  than  that  of  his  brother  John.     He 
gave  happy  expression  in  verse  to  all  the 
great  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  he  was 
especially  happy  in  the  hymns  which  he  wrote 
embodying  the  more  distinctive  doctrines  of 
his  faith.     These  hymns  became  at  once  im- 
mensely popular  with  the  people,  and  gave 
wings,  as  it  were,  to  the  doctrines  they  em- 
bodied.    A  sermon  put  into  a  song  doubles 
its  power  for  good.     Nor  did  these  doctrinal 
hymns  of  Charles  Wesley  simply  meet  a  local 
and  temporary  need;  they  have  an  abiding 
value,  and  have  carried,  in  the  most  effective 
manner  possible,  the  doctrines  they  contain 
into  the  hymnals  of  all  Christian  Churches 
the  world  over.    While  John  Wesley's  hymns 
are  not  numerous,  and  are  mostly  translations 
from  other  languages,  they  are  in  no  way  in- 
ferior to  those  of  Charles  Wesley  either  in 
poetic  merit  or  doctrinal  value.     It  is  in  por- 
traying those  doctrines  which  are  matters  of 
religious  experience  that  the  Wesleyan  hymns 
are  richest  both  in  variety  and  in  intensity  of 


10  THJ£    DOCTBINES    OF   METHODISM. 

utterance.  The  great  reformation  in  Germa- 
ny in  the  sixteenth  centuiy  owed  much  to  the 
fact  that  Luther  was  a  poet  as  well  as  a 
preacher,  and  embodied  all  his  leading  doc- 
trines in  simple  and  popular  hymns  that  were 
adapted  to  the  common  people  as  well  as  in 
sermons  and  theses  that  were  adapted  to  the 
learned.  But  the  Wesleyan  reformation  owed 
even  more  to  its  hymns.  "  Let  me  write  the 
songs  of  a  people,"  said  one,  "and  I  care  not 
who  may  write  their  laws;  I  will  govern 
them."  "  Let  me  write  the  hymns  of  a 
Church,"  said  another,  "and  I  care  not  who 
may  write  her  creeds  and  ponderous  volumes 
of  theology;  I  will  determine  the  faith  of  her 
membership."  The  Methodist  hymn  book 
has  always  been  reckoned  among  the  doctri- 
nal standards  of  the  Church.  It  has  ever 
been  one  of  the  most  effective  of  the  agencies 
employed  for .  indoctrinating  the  people  in 
that  type  of  evangelical  Christian  faith  which 
is  known  the  world  over  as  Methodist  theology. 
But  the  designation  of  Methodist  theology 
as  "Ai-minian  "  and  "Wesleyan  "  must  not  be 
misunderstood.  Methodist  theology  is  first 
of  all  and  above  all  biblical.  Every  evangel- 
ical Church  recognizes  the  Bible  as  the  source 
and  foundation  of  its  theology.     It  is  after 


INTBODUCTION.  11 

all  simply  a  question  of  the  proper  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Bible.  Calvinism  is  a  logical  and 
self-consistent  system  of  doctrine  which  finds 
its  starting  point  and  its  determining  princi- 
ple in  the  eternal  decrees  of  Jehovah,  and  in- 
terprets the  entire  revelation  contained  in 
the  Bible  in  accordance  with  that  doctrine. 
Methodism  also  has  a  logical  and  self -consist- 
ent system  of  doctrine  which  in  like  manner 
is  based  upon  the  Bible,  but  it  finds  its  start- 
ing point  and  determining  principle  in  two 
doctrines  that  mutually  necessitate  and  sup- 
port each  other — viz'. ,  the  moral  free  agency 
of  man  and  the  unlimited  atonement  of  Christ; 
and  we  may  say  that  every  other  doctrine  of 
Methodist  theology  is  a  logical  outcome  of 
these  two  doctrines.  Methodism,  therefore, 
claims  that  its  theology  is  the  theology  of  the 
New  Testament,  the  theology  of  Christ  and  of 
Paul.  It  is  that  simple  and  primitive  type  of 
theology  which  began  to  be  preached  in  its 
completed  form  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and 
has  never  since  been  without  its  true  witness- 
es in  any  age  of  the  Church's  history.  It  has 
needed,  however,  to  be  restated  and  reformu- 
lated ever  and  anon.  Such  was  the  service 
rendered  by  James  Arminius  and  John  Wes- 
ley, and  by  others  before  and  since  their  day. 


n. 

The  HoiiY  Scriptures. 

What  doctrine  does  Methodism  hold  con- 
cerning the  Holy  Scriptures?  This  is  best 
answered  by  first  asking  another  question: 
What  does  the  Bible  teach  concerning  itself? 
The  Bible  teaches,  we  answer,  that  "All  Scrip- 
ture is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  cor- 
rection, for  instruction  in  righteousness:  that 
the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works."  It  teaches 
that  "prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the 
will  of  man:  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as 
they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost; "  and  that 
"God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  spake  in  time  past  unto  the  fathers 
by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spo- 
ken unto  us  by  his  Son."  Moses  is  represent- 
ed as  having  received  directly  from  God  the 
Ten  Commandments,  which  are  with  us  to 
this  day,  and  whose  high  moral  character 
well  befits  their  claim  of  a  divine  origin. 
"The  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me,  say- 
ing," is  the  preface  with  which  the  proph- 
ets begin  their  messages.  These  remarkable 
(12) 


THE    HOLY    SCKIPTURES.  13 

claims  demand  of  us  that  we  make  serious  in- 
quiry as  to  their  import.  If  this  Book  is 
what  it  claims  to  be,  no  man  can  afford  to  ig- 
nore oi:  neglect  its  teachings.  ' '  These  [things] 
are  written,"  says  St.  John,  in  concluding  the 
fom-th  Gospel,  and  it  is  in  a  sense  equally 
true  of  all  Scripture,  "that  ye  might  believe 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God;  and 
that  believing  ye  might  have  life  through  his 
name." 

These  quotations  cover  the  three  main 
questions  which  we  need  to  ask  concerning 
the  Bible,  and  suggest  the  proper  answers  to 
them:  (1)  Where  did  the  Bible  come  from? 
We  answer  that  it  is  divine  in  its  origin,  in 
that  its  cardinal  and  distinguishing  doctrines 
were  revealed  by  God  to  man.  (2)  How  did 
God  reveal  these  facts  and  doctrines?  We 
answer:  Through  certain  chosen  men  whom 
the  Holy  Spirit  inspired  as  trustworthy  or- 
gans for  the  communication  of  the  divine 
will.  (3)  What  purpose  are  these  inspired 
Scriptures  designed  to  fill  in  the  divine  econ- 
omy as  it  concerns  man?  We  answer:  They 
are  a  divinely  provided  guide  for  man  in  all 
matters  of  a  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  espe- 
cially such  as  pertain  to  his  faith  and  conduct 
here  and  his  life  in  the  world  to  come.     Thus 


14  THB   DOCTRINES   OF  METHODISM. 

we  have  the  three  theological  terms,  revela- 
tion^ iTisjpiration^  and  the  canon^  answering 
the  three  questions  as  to  the  whence^  the  how^ 
and  the  what  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

God  reveals  something  of  himself  and  of 
his  will  through  nature  and  providence,  but 
this  general  revelation  has  always  proved  in- 
adequate to  meet  man's  spiritual  needs,  being 
insufficient  to  impart  a  true  and  satisfactory 
knowledge  of  God,  of  the  way  of  salvation, 
and  of  the  immortality  and  destiny  of  the 
soul.     That  religious  knowledge  which  fallen 
man  needed  but  could  not  secure  from  nature, 
God  has  supplied  in  a  supernatural  manner  by 
revelation.  '  It  is  these  divine  or  supernaturally 
revealed  facts  and  truths  which,  as  collected 
together  within  the  Bible,  constitute  it  a  di- 
vine Book.     Nevertheless,  the  Bible  is  not 
wholly  divine;  it  is  rather  divine-human,  for 
much  that  is  contained  in  it  is  human  in  its  ori- 
gin and  did  not  need  to  be  divinely  revealed. 
This  unrevealed  portion  of  the  Bible  is,  in  fact, 
the  larger  portion.     It  is,  however,  a  faithful 
and  trustworthy  record,  quite  as  much  as  is 
that  portion  which  records  the  divine  revela- 
tions.    The  human  elements  furnish  the  lit- 
erary and  historical  framework  for  holding 
the  divinely  revealed  truths.     The  divine  rev- 


THE   HOLY   SCBlPTirBBS.  15 

elations  contained  in  the  Bible  are  of  trans- 
cendent importance,  and  so  far  give  character 
to  the  volume  as  a  whole  that  it  is  common, 
and  not  inappropriate,  to  designate  it  as  the 
Book  of  Revelation. 

What  is  the  evidence  that  the  Bible  contains 
supernatural  revelations  ?  The  divine  authori- 
ty of  the  Bible  depends  upon  the  truth  of  the 
claim  that  it  contains  supernatural  revelations; 
and  if  this  be  true,  the  claim  ought  to  be  sup- 
ported by  supernatural  evidence.  And  it  is. 
The  prophets  who  claimed  to  have  received 
divine  revelations  proved  the  truth  of  their 
assertions  by  working  miracles.  When  Moses, 
for  example,  announced  to  the  childi'en  of  Is- 
rael in  Egypt  that  he  had  received  a  revela- 
tion and  a  command  from  God  in  the  desert, 
they  immediately  and  very  naturally  demand- 
ed proof  of  such  a  claim.  The  God  who  had 
given  the  revelation  had  provided  for  this 
reasonable  demand,  and  empowered  him  to 
work  miracles.  In  some  instances  the  vindi- 
cation of  the  divine  claim  on  the  part  of  the 
prophet  was  found  in  the  fulfillment  of  pre- 
dictions which  he  uttered  concerning  the  fu- 
ture. In  yet  other  instances  the  revelations 
annoimced  by  the  prophets  as  coming  from 
God  were  self-evidencing — that  is,  were  in 


16  THB   DOCTRIirBS  OF   METHODISM. 

their  nature  so  thoroughly  accordant  with  the 
moral  character  of  God  and  man's  religious 
needs  that  they  carried  their  own  evidence  in 
them,  and  hence  did  not  need  to  be  supported 
by  miracles  or  predictions.  Our  reason,  there- 
fore, for  believing  that  the  Bible  contains  di- 
vine revelations  is  found  in  part  in  the  mira- 
cles the  prophets  and  the  apostles  wrought, 
in  part  in  the  fulfillment  of  their  predictions 
of  future  events,  in  part  in  the  intrinsic  moral 
excellence  of  the  doctrines  taught,  and  finally 
in  the  uplifting  and  ennobling  moral  influence 
the  Bible  has  had  upon  the  character  of  all 
the  nations  and  individuals  that  have  believed 
and  followed  its  teachings. 

But  the  passages  of  Scripture  which  were 
quoted  above  seem  to  teach  not  only  that  God 
has  made  revelations  of  his  will  from  time  to 
time,  but  that  it  was  his  will  that  a  trustwor- 
thy record  should  be  made  of  these  revelations. 
They  imply  that  the  Holy  Spirit  exercised  an 
influence  upon  those  who  wrote  the  books  of 
Holy  Scripture  such  as  cannot  be  claimed  for 
the  writers  of  any  other  books.  This  special 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  minds 
of  the  biblical  writers  was  designed  to  prevent 
them  from  making  hurtful  mistakes  in  the 
statements  they  should  give  of  the  great  mor- 


THE   HOLY   SCBIPTTTBBS.  17 

al  and  spiritual  truths  of  religion,  and  in  an 
important  sense  to  make  their  words  God's 
words,  and  their  book  to  be  God's  Book. 
This  is  what  is  meant  by  saying  that  the  bibli- 
cal writers  were ' '  inspired. "  St.  Peter  speaks 
of  a  certain  scripture  "  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
spake  by  the  mouth  of  David."  The  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  uses  inter- 
changeably the  expressions  "the  Holy  Ghost 
testifieth "  and  "one  [that  is,  the  writer]  in  a 
certain  place  testifieth."  In  other  words, 
what  the  inspired  writer  says  God  says. 

To  affirm  that  the  biblical  writers  were  in- 
spired does  not  mean  that  they  lost  their  hu- 
man individuality  and  freedom,  and  were 
turned  into  machines.  The  inspired  proph- 
ets and  apostles  were  not  shorthand  report- 
ers. Only  in  a  few  instances  do  they  tell 
us  that  they  wrote  down  the  very  "words 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth."  In  the  Ten 
Commandments  we  have  the  very  words  of 
God.  But  as  a  rule  the  expression  of  the 
thought,  even  when  it  was  revealed,  was  de- 
termined by  the  individual  writer,  whose 
style  and  other  mental  peculiarities  may  be 
seen  everywhere  in  his  writings.  There  may 
be  several  accounts  of  the  same  events,  all 
differing  in  the  words  used,  and  yet  all  be 
2 


18  THE   DOCTRINES    OF   METHODISM. 

equally  true  and  accurate.  The  great  pur- 
pose of  inspiration  is  to  secure  truth  in  the 
records,  not  uniformity  and  sameness  of  state- 
ment. The  four  evangelists  record  very  much 
the  same  events,  and  yet  they  differ  both  in 
literary  style  and,  as  a  rule,  in  the  words  used; 
but  all  are  equally  true  and  equally  inspired. 
The  various  books  of  the  Bible  are  as  genu- 
inely human  and  as  thoroughly  marked  by  the 
individual  characteristics  of  their  human  au- 
thors as  if  they  had  been  v^ritten  by  unin- 
spired men.  To  recognize  the  distinctly  hu- 
man element  in  the  Bible  is  not  to  detract 
from  its  moral  value,  but  rather  to  add  to  its 
value  for  man's  guidance,  even  as  the  human- 
ity of  Christ  makes  him  a  better  Saviour  than 
if  he  had  possessed  no  human  nature  at  all. 
Truth  is  none  the  less  true  because  uttered  by 
human  lips.  Christ  is  none  the  less  divine  be- 
cause he  had  a  genuinely  human  nature. 

But  the  strongest  of  all  arguments  in  proof 
of  the  doctrine  of  biblical  inspiration  is  the 
manner  in  which  Christ  refers  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  absolute  divine  authority  which 
he  attributes  to  them.  To  him  and  to  the 
apostles  they  were  none  other  than  God's  own 
words.  Our  Lord  made  distinct  reference  to 
David's  inspiration  when  he  asks:  "  How  then 


THE    HOLY    SCRIPTUBES.  19 

doth  David  in  spirit  call  him  Lord^ "  If  the 
Old  Testament  was  written  by  divinely  in- 
spired men  and  possessed  of  divine  authority, 
how  much  more  the  New,  which  was  the  full 
and  final  expression  of  the  revealed  will  of 
God!  We  believe  in  the  New  Testament 
chiefly  because  of  what  it  tells  us  of  Christ; 
and  in  the  Old  Testament  chiefly  because  of 
what  Christ  tells  us  of  it — tells  us  by  the  way 
he  used  it  and  appealed  to  it  as  the  very  word 
of  God.  Perhaps  the  best  possible  definition 
which  we  can  give  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  is 
drawn  from  their  relation  to  Christ,  thus: 
"By  the  Holy  Scriptures  we  mean,  (1)  those 
ancient  sacred  books  of  the  Jewish  Church 
which  Christ  and  his  inspired  apostles  used 
and  appealed  to  as  of  divine  authority;  and 
( 2)  those  sacred  books  of  the  New  Testament 
which  set  forth  the  life  and  teachings  of  our 
Lord,  and  which  were  written  by  or  under  the 
direction  of  his  apostles."  Christianity  be- 
lieves in  the  Person  first,  and  in  the  Book  sec- 
ond. It  is  the  divine-human  Person  that  makes 
the  Book,  not  the  divine-human  Book  that 
makes  the  Person.  Christianity  could  live 
without  a  Book,  but  it  coukl  not  live — indeed, 
it  could  not  be  at  all — without  the  Person  of 
Christ. 


20  THE   DOCTRINES    OP    METHODISM. 

The  Canon  of  Holy  Scripture,  then,  is  noth- 
ing more  nor  less  than  that  collection  of  sacred 
books  which  were  written  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  primary  object  of 
which  was  to  meet  man's  moral  and  religious 
needs.  They  incidentally  contain  history,  bi- 
ography, chronology,  philosophy,  science,  etc., 
but  they  were  not  written  primarily  to  teach 
any  of  these  things,  and  the  entire  accuracy 
of  their  statements  concerning  questions  of 
this  kind  is  a  matter  of  absolute  insignificance 
as  compared  with  the  great  moral  principles 
and  spiritual  truths  that  are  the  distinguishing 
features  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  in 
reference  to  these  truths  that  we  appeal  to  it 
as  the  divine  and  authoritative  word  of  God. 

The  word  "  canon  "  means,  literally,  a  rule; 
and  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  a  canon  in  that 
they  are  a  divine  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  a 
standard  of  doctrine  and  ethics.  The  word 
"  canonical "  is  also  applied  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tm-es  to  distinguish  them  from  books  which 
were  not  regarded  as  inspired  and  of  divine 
authority,  such  as  the  Old  Testament  Apoc- 
rypha. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures,  as  we  now  have  them, 
are  substantially  identical  with  the  Scriptures 


THE    HOLY    SCJSIPTURKS.  21 

which  Christ  and  the  apostles  used.  These 
Scriptures  of  the  old  covenant  are  not  called 
old  because  they  are  antiquated  and  obsolete; 
for,  although  the  dispensation  for  which  they 
were  immediately  written  has  long  since  come 
to  an  end,  having  served  its  purpose,  these 
ancient  Scriptures  have  an  abiding  significance 
and  value.  A  large  part  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  occupied  exclusively  with  setting  forth  the 
ritual  and  ceremonial  law  of  the  Jewish 
Church,  which  is  not  now  binding  and  has 
never  been  since  the  day  of  Pentecost;  but,  so 
far  as  they  embody  God's  moral  law,  they  are 
of  as  much  authority  now  as  they  ever  were, 
and  are  of  equal  authority  with  the  New  Tes- 
tament. Inasmuch,  however,  as  transitory 
and  now  obsolete  precepts  are  intermingled 
with  those  which  are  of  perpetual  obligation, 
the  Old  Testament  must  be  read  and  inter- 
preted with  intelligent  discrimination. 

All  inspired  books  are  of  importance,  but 
some  are  of  more  importance  than  others.  That 
portion  of  the  Bible  which  transcends  in  mor- 
al value  all  other  parts  of  the  Bible  is  the  four 
Gospels.  Christianity  is  a  historical  religion. 
Its  Founder  is  a  Person  who  lived  at  a  definite 
time  and  place,  and  the  Gospels  purport  to 
give  a  trustworthy  record  of  the  leading  facts 


22  THK    DOCTBINKS    OF    METHODISM. 

of  his  life,  his  sayings  and  doings.  The  whole 
question  as  to  whether  or  not  there  is  a  super- 
natural religion  in  the  world  depends  upon  the 
historical  trustworthiness  of  these  Gospel  rec- 
ords. If  any  records  in  the  literature  of  the 
world  are  entitled  to  credence,  these  surely 
are.  Paul  probably  wrote  his  Epistles  many 
years  before  the  Gospels  were  written.  Fo\ir 
of  the  Pauline  Epistles  (Romans,  First  and  Sec- 
ond Corinthians,  and  Galatians)  are  univer- 
sally admitted  by  well-nigh  all  classes  of  theo- 
logians and  critics  to  be  genuine,  and  to  come 
from  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century. 
These  Epistles  establish  the  fact  beyond  a 
doubt  that  Christ  was  at  that  time  regarded 
as  a  divine-human  Being,  who  had  died  upon 
the  cross  and  had  risen  again  from  the  dead. 
These  are  the  main  facts  of  supernatural  reli- 
gion— viz.,  the  incarnation  of  Christ  and  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  If  these  are  true, 
the  Gospels  are  fully  confirmed,  and  the  ex- 
istence of  a  supernatural  religion,  with  its  su- 
pernatural Christ,  is  established.  This,  we 
saw  at  the  outset,  is  the  supreme  and  final  end 
for  which  the  Scriptures  ex^st:  ' '  That  ye  might 
believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God;  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life 
through  his  name." 


m. 

The  Doctrine  of  God. 

"In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth."  It  is  impossible  to  conceive 
a  more  appropriate  sentence  with  which  to 
begin  the  inspired  Book  than  these  simple  and 
sublime  words.  No  definition  or  explanation 
of  what  is  meant  by  God  is  given.  A  certain 
knowledge  of  God  is  here  presupposed.  As 
to  how  mankind  came  by  the  idea  of  God — 
whether  it  is  innate,  or  intuitive,  or  a  deduc- 
tion of  reason,  or  a  revelation  in  the  first  in- 
stance and  thereafter  transmitted  to  all  others 
— on  this  point,  concerning  which  there  has 
been  so  much  speculation  among  philosophers, 
nothing  is  said.  While  the  first  inspired  writ- 
er assumes  a  knowledge  of  God  on  the  part  of 
his  readers,  neither  he  nor  later  writers  con- 
sider that  knowledge  complete  and  perfect; 
for  a  large  part  of  their  purpose  in  writing,  as 
is  plainly  manifest,  is  to  reveal  facts  and  truths 
concerning  the  nature,  attributes,  and  activi- 
ties of  the  Divine  Being.  To  discover  and 
state  what  the  Bible  has  revealed  concerning 
God  is  the  work  before  us  in  this  chapter. 

The  Divine  Being  is  revealed  in  the  Bible  in 

(23) 


24  THK    DOCTRINES    OV   METHODISM. 

part  by  the  names  given  to  him.  The  Hebrew 
originals  of  "God"  and  "Jehovah  "  represent, 
respectively,  the  ideas  of  "power"  and ' '  essen- 
tial being."  All  religions  had  their  "gods," 
but  only  the  children  of  Israel  had  their  "Je- 
hovah." This  name,  by  which  he  revealed 
himself  to  the  chosen  people  (Ex.  vi.  3),  was 
derived  from  the  verb  "to  be,"  and  probably 
means,  "He  who  not  only  is,  but  who  causes 
things  to  be"— that  is,  the  Creator.  When 
God  called  himself  (Ex.  iii.  14)  the  "I  Am," 
"I  Am  that  I  Am,"  it  was  but  another  form 
of  '  'Jehovah. "  This  was,  however,  among  the 
Jews — at  least  among  the  later  Jews — the  ' '  in- 
effable Name."  For  some  cause  or  other, 
which  is  not  now  known,  they  never  uttered 
it  or  took  it  "between  their  sin-polluted  lips." 
In  reading  they  always  substituted  for  it  the 
word  Adhonaif  which  is  translated  "Lord." 
This  latter  title  is  in  itself  a  most  suitable 
name  for  God,  in  that  the  Divine  Being  is  not 
only  a  God  of  power  and  One  who  is  and  causes 
things  to  he,  but  he  is  also  the  Sovereign  and 
"Lord  "  of  a  kingdom,  a  God  whose  dominion 
is  over  all  free  and  rational  beings. 

The  most  significant  and  appropriate  of  all 
divine  names  it  was  reserved  for  Christ  to  ap- 
ply to  God,  and  that  is  the  name  of  "Father." 


THK    DOCTBINB    OF    GOD.  25 

It  had  been  used  in  a  figurative  sense  before, 
but  Christ  revealed  it  as  his  real  name,  the 
name  which,  more  than  any  other  and  all  oth- 
ers, represented  his  real  character  and  his  true 
relationship  to  man.  In  revealing  God  to  us 
as  a  Father,  Christ  made  him  a  lovable  Being. 
Hitherto  he  had  been  feared  and  worshiped 
with  awe,  and  obeyed  from  a  stern  sense  of 
duty;  but  Christ  made  God  such  a  One  as 
could  be  loved.  Christ  transformed  duty  to 
God  into  a  willing  service,  a  labor  of  love  to 
"our  Father."  The  "Fatherhood  of  God," 
then,  may  be  said  to  represent  the  crowning 
revelation  of  the  Bible  so  far  as  it  concerns 
the  Divine  Being. 

The  three  truths  concerning  the  God  of  the 
Bible,  which  from  the  beginning  of  Old  Tes- 
tament history  were  most  conspicuously  re- 
vealed and  were  emphatically  and  repeatedly 
reuttered,  are  his  unity ^  his  spirituality,  and 
his  personality.  "Hear,  O  Israel;  the  Lord 
our  God  is  one  Lord,"  is,  so  to  speak,  the  first 
declaration  of  Old  Testament  theology,  the 
first  article  in  the  faith  of  the  chosen  people. 
The  unity  of  God  means  that  there  is  and  can 
be  but  one  God.  To  affirm  the  existence  of 
many  gods  is  virtually  to  deny  the  existence 
of  any  real  and  true  God.     Many  gods  means 


26  THE    DOCTKINES    OF   METHODISM. 

uo  God.  The  Jews  were  surrounded  by  peo- 
ples who  were  polytheists — that  is,  worshiped 
many  gods.  But  this  declaration  of  the  one- 
ness of  God  does  not  stand  alone  in  the  Bible; 
it  is  immediately  followed  by  other  words  that 
belong  to  the  very  same  sentence:  "and  thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind." 
This  implies  that  faith  in  the  unity  of  God  is 
an  antecedent  condition  to  loving  God.  Poly- 
theists fear  their  gods,  but  never  love  them. 
Only  those  who  believe  in  one  God  are  capa- 
ble of  exercising  that  highest  of  all  creaturely 
acts  of  worship — love. 

But  peoples  who  have  not  had  the  benefits  of 
divine  revelations  have  not  only  multiplied  their 
gods;  they  have  also  materialized  them.  Their 
deities  have  been  generally  gods  of  wood  and 
stone,  the  works  of  their  own  hands,  and  they 
that  made  them  were  like  unto  them.  Their 
gods,  instead  of  being  their  creators,  were 
their  creatures.  The  many  forms  of  idolatry 
that  have  characterized  and  degi-aded  the  hea- 
then nations  of  the  earth  have  been  a  result 
of  the  materializing  of  Deity.  But  "God  is 
a  Spirit:  and  they  that  worship  him  must 
worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  Spirit 
has  none  of  the  properties  of  matter,  but  has 


THK    DOCTKINE    OF    GOD.  Jit 

consciousness,  intelligence,  moral  nature,  free- 
dom, and  similar  attributes,  none  of  which  be- 
long to  matter.  Man  is  both  body  and  spirit, 
but  that  which  he  recognizes  as  his  real  and 
true  self  is  his  spirit.  There  could  be  no  finite 
spirits  if  there  were  not  an  Infinite  Spirit, 
and  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  spiritual 
religion  if  God  were  not  a  Spirit. 

But  there  are  those  who  believe  in  the 
unity  and  spirituality  of  Deity,  who  yet  do 
not  believe  that  God  is  a  person.  They  affirm 
that  everything  is  God,  that  God  is  '"''the  alV 
of  existence.  Pantheists  affirm  that  every- 
thing is,  in  its  ultimate  analysis,  out  one 
thing,  and  that  thing  is  ' '  God. "  Even  matter 
itself  is  but  the  "visible  form"  of  Deity. 
But  Deity  is  not  a  person,  not  a  somebody, 
but  a  somewhat,  an  infinite  "It" — that  eternal, 
all-pervasive,  indestructible  something  out  of 
which  everything  visible  comes  and  to  which 
everything  visible  returns.  But  the  Chris- 
tian Scriptures  affirm  that  God  is  a  Person, 
separate  and  distinct  from  everything  else  in 
the  universe.  God  is  He,  not  It.  All  things 
in  the  universe  were  made  by  God  out  of  noth- 
ing, and  owe  their  existence  to  his  will  and 
his  creative  power.  If  God  were  not  a  per- 
son, there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  personal 


28  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

religion,  nor  could  there  be  any  true  worship, 
or  any  love  to  God,  or  any  sense  of  moral  re- 
sponsibility. We  thus  see  that  if  there  is  any 
real  and  true  God  at  all,  these  three  things 
must  be  predicable  of  him:  unity,  spiritual- 
ity, personality.  Of  the  God  of  the  Bible, 
and  of  him  alone,  can  all  these  things  be  af- 
firmed. 

But  God  is  not  only  "Father;"  he  is  also 
"Son."  The  Father  and  Son  are  both  alike 
divine.  God  is  not  only  our  Father;  he  is,  in 
a  imique  and  peculiar  sense,  the  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Christ  is  revealed  in 
the  New  Testament  as  the  eternal  Son  of 
God.  He  speaks  of  the  glory  that  he  had 
with  the  Father  before  the  world  began.  He 
claims  and  receives  honor  and  worship  such 
as  can  be  properly  given  to  none  but  God. 
A  third  person,  called  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is 
represented  as  "proceeding"  from  the  Father 
and  as  "sent"  by  the  Son,  is  also  represented 
as  possessed  of  divine  attributes  and  is  accorded 
divine  worship.  In  a  certain  sense  the  Fa- 
ther comes  first,  the  Son  second,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  third;  but  these  three  persons 
are  represented  as  alike  eternal  and  equally 
divine.  And  yet  in  immediate  connection 
with  the  recognition  of  the  divine  character 


THE    DOCTRINE    OF    GOD. 


29 


of  these  three  different  Persons,  our  Lord 
and  the  apostles  repeat  and  emphasize  what  is 
so  often  asserted  in  the  Old  Testament— that 
there  is  but  one  God.  The  only  mode  of 
reconciling  these  apparently  discordant  state- 
ments is  to  say  that  God  is  three  in  one 
sense,  and  one  in  another  sense.  These  dif- 
ferent Persons  share  one  common  divine  na- 
ture. The  whole  of  Deity  is  in  each  divine 
Person.  These  truths  find  expression  in  the 
theological  term  "Trinity"  or  the  "Triunity 
of  the  Godhead." 

It  is  common  to  speak  of  Tjod  as  possessed 
of  certain  "attributes."  The  attributes  of  a 
thing  are  those  qualities  or  properties  which 
inhere  in  the  thing,  and  which,  being  predi- 
cated of  it,  serve  to  define  it  by  distinguishing 
it  from  all  other  things,  whether  similar  or 
dissimilar  to  it.  A  thing  is  never  properly 
defined  until  certain  attributes  are  predicated 
of  it  which  do  not,  at  least  in  their  entirety, 
belong  to  anything  else.  Among  the  leading 
attributes  which  serve  to  define  God  may  be 
mentioned  these:  freedom,  immutability,  eter- 
nity, omnipresence,  omnipotence,  omniscience, 
goodness,  holiness,  and  love. 

By  freedom  we  mean  that  attribute  that  be- 
longs to  a  self-conscious,  rational,  and  moral 


30  THE   DOCTBINE8   OF  METHODISM. 

being",  by  virtue  of  which  his  will  possesses 
self -determining  power,  and  is  necessitated  to 
put  forth  its  volitions  by  nothing  outside  of 
itself,  the  real  determining  causei  of  his  voli- 
tions and  acts  being  in  himself.  God's  will  is 
itself  the  uncaused  cause  of  all  things.  Of 
him  alone  can  it  be  said  that  "He  doeth  ac- 
cording to  his  will  in  the  armies  of  heaven 
and  among  the  inhabitants  of  earth."  But 
the  infinite  Divine  Will  created  finite  human 
wills,  who  possess  within  certain  narrow  lim- 
its the  same  kind  of  free  and  self -determining 
power  that  the  Divine  Will  possesses  without 
limits.  God  is  the  only  one  "who  worketh 
all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will." 
(Eph.  i.'ll.) 

By  the  divine  irmnutahility  we  mean  that 
God  changes  not.  It  is  not  the  same  as  immo- 
bility, but  is  the  attribute  of  an  ever-active 
Being  whose  principles  of  action  are  absolute- 
ly uniform  in  their  conformity  to  his  per- 
fect moral  character,  "I  am  Jehovah,  I 
change  not."  (Mai.  iii.6. )  "Thou,  Lord,  in 
the  beginning  hast  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  earth;  and  the  heavens  are  the  work  of 
thine  hands:  they  shall  perish;  but  thou  re- 
mainest;  and  they  all  shall  wax  old  as  doth  a 
garment ;   and  as  a  vesture  shalt  thou  fold 


THE   DOCTBINB   OF    GOD. 


31 


them  up,  and  they  shall  be  changed:  but 
thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall  not 
fail."  (Heb.  i.  10. )  Of  Christ  it  is  said  that 
he  is  "  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and 
forever." 

The  eternity  of  God  defines  his  relation  to 
time,  and  means  that  he  is  without  beginning 
of  days  or  end  of  years.  There  never  was  a^ 
time  when  he  was  not;  there  never  can  come  a 
time  when  he  will  not  be.  "Before  the 
mountains  were  brought  forth,  or  ever  thou 
hadst  formed  the  earth  and  the  world,  even 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  thou  art 
God."  (Ps.  xc.  2.)  He  is  described  by 
Isaiah  as  the  "lofty  One  that  inhabiteth 
eternity."  There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  may 
be  truly  said  that  all  time  is  an  "eternal 
now"  with  God.  All  the  events  of  the  past 
and  of  the  f utui-e  enter  as  fully  into  his  con- 
scious knowledge  at  every  moment  of  time  as 
do  the  events  of  the  present.  But  this  phase 
of  his  eternity  involves  omniscience. 

The  omnipresence  of  God  is  a  term  that  ex- 
presses his  relation  to  infinite  space.  There 
is  no  object  or  point  in  infinite  space  at  which 
he  is  not  present  at  every  moment.  ' '  Behold, 
the  heaven,  and  heaven  of  heavens,  cannot 
contain  thee,"  said  Solomon  truly.     The  ques- 


32  THB   DOCTEINE8   OF   METHODISM. 

tions  of  the  psalmist,  "Whither  shall  I  go 
from  thy  Spirit?"  and  "whither  shall  I  flee 
from  thy  presence  ? "  suggest  their  own  answer. 
"  The  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  in  every  place,  be- 
holding the  evil  and  the  good." 

By  the  omnipotence  of  God  is  meant  that 
he  has  power  to  do  whatever  he  wills  to  do. 
Man's  power  is  limited;  God's  power  is  un- 
limited. Man  has  to  accomplish  much  of 
what  he  does  by  working  upon  and  through 
other  things;  God's  power  is  exercised  im- 
mediately. He  wills,  and  it  is  done;  bespeaks 
the  word  of  power,  and  it  is  executed.  The 
Scriptures  tell  us  that  "with  God  all  things 
are  possible."  But  omnipotence  cannot  ac- 
complish impossibilities.  Whatever  is  a  con- 
tradiction in  thought  is  an  impossibility  in 
execution,  even  to  divine  omnipotence.  Thus 
God  cannot,  by  an  exercise  of  his  omnipo- 
tence, com.^^  free  moral  h^rngs  to  be  moral- 
ly good  and  holy.  If  he  should  do  this,  he 
would  destroy  their  free  moral  agency,  which 
is  the  very  essence  of  their  nature. 

Omniscience  is  that  attribute  by  virtue  of 
which  God  knows  all  things,  past,  present, 
and  future.  "  His  understanding  is  infinite. " 
(Ps.  cxlvii.  5.)  "All  things  are  naked  and 
opened  unto  the  eyes  of  him  with  whom  we 


THE    DOCTRINE    OF    GOD. 


33 


have  to  do."    (Heb.  iv.  13.)     "Known  unto 
God  are  all  his  works  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world. "    (Acts  x v.  18. )    That  phase  of  the 
divine  omniscience  which  is  theologically  the 
most  important  is  the  foreknowledge  of  God; 
and  this  because  of  its  relation  to  the  doctrine 
of  election  and  predestination.    Between  divine 
foreknowledge  and  human  free  agency  there 
is  no  contradiction,  any  more  than  there  is  be- 
tween the  present  knowledge  of  God  and  man's 
freedom  in  his  acts.     But  if  God,  before  men 
were  even  created,  chose  some  to  salvation 
and  others  to  damnation,  and  then  predesti- 
nated them  to  their  foreordained  lot,  and  is 
now  working  out  his  eternal  decrees— in  other 
words,  if  it  is  God's  will  in  eternity,  and  not 
man's  will  in  time,  that  determines  who  is  to 
be  saved  and  who  lost— then  it  is  impossible 
that  men  should  be  free  and  responsible  for 
their  character  and  destiny.     The  divine  wis- 
dom is  the  omniscience  of  God  as  manifested 
in  the  accomplishment  of  the  highest  and  best 
ends  by  the  use  of  ihe    simplest   and  most 
effective  means.     The  grandest  display  of  the 
wisdom  of  God  is  found  in  the  divine  method 
adopted  for  saving  a  lost  world— by  the  incar- 
nation, death,  and  resurrection  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 
3 


34  THB   DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

By  the  goodness  of  God  is  meant  that  attri- 
bute of  the  divine  Nature  which  seeks  the  well- 
being  and  happiness  of  all  creatures.  "The 
earth  is  full  of  the  goodness  of  the  Lord." 
(Ps.  xxxiii.  5. )  But  the  highest  well-being  and 
happiness  of  rational  beings  is  moral  and  spir- 
itual good.  To  secure  this  higher  good  in 
man  it  is  often  necessary  for  him  to  suffer 
physical  evil.  Physical  evil  is  one  of  the 
most  effective  agencies  employed  by  God  to 
correct  moral  evil.  It  is  no  reflection,  there- 
fore, on  the  goodness  of  God  to  find  that  he 
has  made  a  world  in  which  there  is  much  that 
mars  the  mere  physical  comfort  of  his  crea- 
tures. He  makes  "all  things  to  work  togeth- 
er for  good  to  them  that  love  him." 

By  the  holiness  of  God  we  mean  the  ab- 
sence from  the  divine  character  of  every- 
thing of  the  nature  of  creaturely  evil,  and  the 
presence  of  everything  that  is  the  opposite  of 
evil.  But  holiness  is  not  simply  a  passive 
personal  attribute;  it  is  also  active  in  that 
God  is  doing  everything  he  can,  in  keep- 
ing with  the  laws  of  his  kingdom  and  the 
free  agency  of  man,  to  save  his  moral  crea- 
tures from  sin  and  secure  them  in  holiness. 
Justice  is  but  a  form  of  holiness.  It  is  con- 
cerned with  man's  relations  to  law  and  gov- 


THE    DOCTRINE    OF    GOD.  35 

ernment,  to  sin  and  its  punishment,  to  vir- 
tue and  its  reward.  * '  Who  is  like  unto  thee, 
O  Lord,  among  the  gods?  who  is  like  thee, 
glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing 
wonders?"     (Ex.  xv.  11.) 

But  love  is  that  attribute  that  overshadows 
and  swallows  up  all  others.  It  is  represented 
as  belonging  in  some  unique  sense  to  the  very 
essence  of  God.  ' '  God  is  love. "  ( 1  John  iv. 
8. )  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but 
that  he  loved  us. "  ( 1  John  iv.  10. )  "  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  (John 
iii.  16. )  Grace  is  that  form  of  the  divine  love 
which  contemplates  man  with  an  emphasis 
upon  his  impotence  and  ill  desert  through  sin, 
and  provides  for  his  salvation  through  Christ, 
The  grandest  expression  of  the  love  of  God  is 
found  in  the  gift  of  Christ. 

We  have  enumerated  here  the  more  impor- 
tant divine  attributes.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
God  possesses  every  attribute  that  is  conceiv- 
able as  belonging  to  a  moral  and  holy  being, 
and  he  possesses  each  attribute  without  limit. 
From  these  facts  it  follows  that  God  is  an  in- 
finite and  perfect  Being,  worthy  of  the  adora- 
tion, worship,  and  love  of  all  created  beings. 


IV. 

The  Bible  Doctkine  or  Max. 

If  God  is  the  chief  object  of  divine  revela- 
tion, man,  we  may  say,  is  the  principal  subject 
of  revelation.  The  inspired  Scriptures  are  ad- 
dressed to  man  and  are  largely  about  himself, 
his  nature  and  needs,  his  duty  and  destiny. 
The  Scriptures  give  us  four  views  of  man: 
first,  primitive  man,  in  his  unfallen  state,  as 
God  made  him,  innocent  and  pm-e;  second, 
man  in  his  fallen  state,  as  he  made  himself, 
sinful  and  depraved;  third,  man  in  a  state  of 
gracious  ability,  as  Christ  made  him  by  his 
redeeming  work;  fourth,  man  in  a  state  of  re- 
generation or  restoration  to  the  divine  image, 
as  the  Holy  Spirit  is  ready  to  make  all  those 
who  come  unto  God  by  Christ.  In  this  chap- 
ter we  shall  consider  man  as  originally  created 
and  as  fallen. 

The  only  rational  account  we  have  of  man's 
origin,  that  in  Genesis,  makes  him  to  be  the 
last  and  highest  product  of  creation;  and  this 
is  equally  true  whether  the  inspired  narrative 
be  explained  literally  or  as  truth  taught  in 
allegorical  and  symbolical  form.  This  high- 
est of  God's  earthly  creatures  is  possessed  of 
(36) 


THE  BIBIiB  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN.  3< 

two  natures,  physical  and  spiritual,  in  one  per- 
sonality.    Man  is  allied  to  lower  animals  in 
his  physical  nature,  but  to  the  angelic  world  in 
his  spirit.     His  material  or  physical  nature  is 
sometimes  called  flesh  and  sometimes  body. 
His  immaterial  nature  is   designated  some- 
times as  soul  and  sometimes  as  spirit.     It  is 
in  man^  immaterial  or  spiritual  nature  that 
we  find  the  real  seat  of  manhood.     It  is  this 
spiritual  nature  that  gives  him  his  conscious- 
ness and  reason,  his  intellect,  sensibilities,  and 
will,  his  conscience,  his  capacity  for  sin  on 
the  one  hand  and  for  holiness  on  the  other, 
his  capacity  for  the  worship  and  service  of 
God,  his  likeness  to  God,  his  divine  sonship 
and  immortality.     Man  is  represented  in  the 
Bible  as  having  been  created  in  the  image  of 
God,  endowed  with  reason  and  moral  free 
agency,  placed  under  moral  laws,  obedience  to 
which  results  in  holy  character,  and  disobe- 
dience to  which  is  sin  and  results  in' sinful  char- 
acter.   His  life  here  is  probationary  in  that  his 
character  as  formed  here  determines  his  desti- 
ny in  the  world  to  come. 

The  supreme  purpose  of  God  in  creating 
man  seems  to  have  been  to  make  possible  the 
highest  ideal  of  creatarely  holiness  and  happi- 
ness.    There  was  need  in  the  universe  of  a 


38  THE   DOCTBINE8    OF   METHODISM. 

creature  whose  highest  happiness  would  be  se- 
cured by  his  highest  holiness;  and  this  holiness, 
in  turn,  would  secure  the  highest  glory  of  the 
Creator.  The  holiness  ojf  a  free  being  is  a 
higher  type  of  holiness  than  any  kind  of  holi- 
ness that  might  characterize  a  being  who 
should  be  necessitated  by  the  will  of  the  Cre- 
ator to  be  and  do  what  he  is  and  does,  and  the 
former  holiness  would  glorify  the  Creator  far 
more  than  the  latter  possibly  could.  The  lat- 
ter could  glorify  God  only  as  a  house  does  its 
builder,  while  the  former  would  glorify  him  as 
a  dutiful  and  obedient  son  does  his  father,  a 
righteous  citizen  his  ruler,  or  a  brave  soldier 
his  leader.  But  ip  order  for  God  to  make  holi- 
ness possible  it  was  absolutely  necessary  for 
him  to  make  sin  possible.  But  while  God 
made  sin  possible  by  creating  free  moral  agents 
and  placing  them  in  a  state  of  probation,  he 
did  not  make  sin  actual.  It  was  man,  not 
God,  who  made  sin  actual.  God,  we  may  say, 
would  not  have  made  sin  possible  if  he  could 
have  secured  the  highest  ideal  of  holiness  in 
man  without  such  possibility.  But  there  are 
some  things  which  even  omnipotence  cannot 
do;  it  cannot  do  an  impossible  thing,  and  the 
creation  o/nd  probation  of  a  free  being  who 
cannot  sin  are  an  impossibility.    But  the  high- 


THE  BIBLE  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN.  39 

est  ideal  of  the  Creator  as  embodied  in  man, 
the  moral  free  agent,  would  have  been  realized 
if  sin  had  forever  remained  simply  a  possibil- 
ity and  had  never  become  an  actuality.  That 
ideal  has  been  realized  in  one,  and  only  one— 
the  Son  of  Man.  But  the  fii-st  Adam  was  as 
free  from  sin  when  he  came  from  the  hands  of 
his  Creator  as  was  the  infant  born  of  the  Vir- 
gin. The  first  man  was  under  no  necessity  to 
sin.     He  was  free. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  while  man's  first  es- 
tate was  thus  one  of  innocence  and  purity,  two 
alternatives  were  before  him  as  a  moral  free 
agent:  holiness  and  sin.  But  the  life  and  pro- 
bation of  the  first  pair  had  not  been  of  long 
duration  before,  by  an  abuse  of  their  moral 
freedom,  innocence  and  purity  gave  place  to 
sin  and  guilt.  The  history  of  mankind,  from 
that  time  on,  is  the  history  of  a  fallen  and 
sinful  race.  The  "fall  of  man"  is  a  phrase 
which  is  commonly  used  in  theology  to  de- 
scribe man's  loss  of  original  righteousness  and 
his  coming  under  the  dominion  of  sin.  The 
fall  of  Adam  is  regarded  as  the  fall  of  the 
race,  because  of  the  fact  that  he  was  not  only 
the  natural  head,  but  in  such  a  sense  the  fed- 
eral head  and  moral  representative  of  the  race, 
which  was  serainally  in  him,  that  certain  con- 


40  THE    DOCTRINES    OF   METHODISM. 

sequences  of  his  sin  were  entailed  upon  tiiem. 
But  Adam's  relation  to  the  universal  sinful- 
ness of  the  race  is  a  matter  of  secondary  im- 
portance as  compared  to  the  undeniable  fact 
that  all  men  are  by  nature  sinful  and  stand  in 
need  of  a  Saviour. 

The  Bible  uses  various  expressions  to  define 
the  nature  of  sin.  The  essence  of  sin  is  self- 
ishness, setting  one's  own  will  in  opposition 
to  the  will  of  the  Creator,  or  mllful  trans- 
gression of  the  law  of  God.  Sin  is  "enmity 
against  God."  The  sinner  is  one  who  has  de- 
throned God,  the  rightful  ruler,  from  his  seat 
of  authority  in  the  heart,  and  has  set  himself 
up  as  ruler  instead,  and  the  result  is  a  state  of 
internal  moral  anarchy.  The  fact  that  the 
will  of  the  creature  so  often  manifests  its 
disobedience  to  the  commands  of  God,  by 
yielding  to  the  solicitations  of  the  fleshly  or 
animal  nature,  has  given  rise  to  calling  sin 
"the  flesh"  or  "the  carnal  mind."  The  seat 
of  sin,  however,  is  in  the  inner  spiritual  man, 
in  the  heart,  and  not  in  the  flesh.  Outward 
acts  are  sins  only  in  so  far  as  they  are  expres- 
sions of  inner  volitions,  dispositions,  and 
states.  "Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil 
thoughts."  If  the  tree  is  evil,  its  fruit  must 
be  evil.     The   look  of   the  eye  that  comes 


THE  BIBLS  DOCTRINE  OF  MAN.  41 

from  lust  in  the  heart  does  not  need  the  out- 
ward act  to  make  it  sin.  The  decision  to 
commit  murder,  or  even  the  hate  of  the  heart 
that  may  lead  to  murderous  volition,  makes 
one  a  mui'derer  in  the  eyes  of  God.  There 
are  different  degrees  of  guilt.  There  may  be 
sins  of  culpable  thoughtlessness  and  igno- 
rance, sins  of  surprise  in  which  one  is  over- 
taken in  a  fault,  sins  of  deliberate  choice  and 
malice  aforethought,  sins  that  involve  the 
breaking  of  a  solemn  covenant,  and  sins 
against  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  which  the  sinner, 
by  persistence  in  willful  wrongdoing,  passes 
beyond  the  possibility  of  being  renewed 
again  unto  repentance,  and  hence  beyond  the 
possibility  of  pardon.  (Matt.  v.  28,  xv.  19; 
1  John  iii.  4;  Rom.  viii.  6-8;  Mark  iii.  29; 
Heb.  vi.  6.) 

But  sin  is  not  only  a  voluntary  transgression 
of  the  law  of  God;  it  is  also,  according  to  the 
definition  of  St.  John,  any  want  of  conform- 
ity to  that  law.  Sins  often  repeated  beget  a 
habit  of  sin.  Sinful  habits  long  continued  in 
beget  sinful  character.  Sin  in  the  first  in- 
stance always  involves  a  consciously  evil  act, 
but  the  oftener  a  man  sins  the  more  does  sin 
become  to  him  the  law  of  life,  and  the  less 
does  the  element  of  consciousness  enter  into 


42  THE    DOCTRINES    OP   METHODIgjVf. 

his  sinning.  Whenever  a  man  thus,  by  long- 
continued  violations  of  God's  law,  reaches  the 
point  where  conscience  ceases  to  rebuke  him 
for  his  violation  of  God's  law — where  he 
ceases  to  feel  painfully  the  guilt  of  his  sins, 
where  sin  has  become  the  law  of  life  to  him, 
has  become,  as  it  were,  the  natm-al  thing  to  do — 
then  he  has  become  possessed  of  a  sinful  char- 
acter. This  is  sometimes  called  acquired  de- 
pravity, as  distinct  from  voluntary  sin,  or  the 
sin  of  nature,  as  distinct  from  willful  sin. 
Sinful  character  is  the  result  of  sinful  volitions 
and  acts,  but  when  character  is  formed  it  be- 
comes a  predisposing  cause  of  the  volitions 
and  acts  that  result — that  is,  a  man  does  not 
come  from  the  hand  of  his  Creator  a  bad  man; 
he  becomes  a  bad  man  only  as  a  result  of  his 
own  evil  volitions  and  evil  deeds;  but  when 
he  has  thus  become  a  bad  man,  then  the  re- 
verse is  true,  and  we  may  say  of  such  a  one 
that  he  does  evil  because  he  is  a  bad  man. 
We  thus  see  what  willful  sin  is,  and  also  its 
relation  to  moral  depravity  and  to  sinful  char- 
acter. 

But  there  is  such  a  thing  as  inherited  de- 
pravity as  well  as  acquired  depravity.  It  is 
commonly  called  original  sin,  and  may  be  de- 
lined  as  that  "corruption  of  the  nature  of 


THE   BIBLE  DOCTRINE   OF  MA>*.  43 

every  man,  that  naturally  is  engendered  of  the 
offspring  of  Adam,  whereby  he  is  very  far 
gone  from  original  righteousness,  and  of  his 
own  natm-e  inclined  to  evil,  and  that  con- 
tinually." That  all  men  do  from  their  very 
infancy  manifest  a  tendency  to  do  wi-ong 
rather  than  to  do  right;  that  children  left  to 
themselves  as  they  grow  up  will  do  that  which 
is  morally  wrong  rather  than  that  which  is 
right— is  one  of  the  most  undeniable  of  all 
moral  facts.  If  the  Church  creeds  and  the 
biblical  writers  were  silent  about  it,  we  still 
could  not  fail  to  recognize  this  universal  sin- 
fulness of  man.  As  this  bias  to  sin  charac- 
terizes man  from  his  very  infancy,  it  may 
reasonably  be  inferred  that  it  is  inherited. 
Hence  it  is  sometimes  called  "birth  sin." 
Many  think  it  unfortunate  that  it  ever  should 
have  been  called  "sin"  or  "guilt;"  think 
that  these  terms  should  have  been  reserved 
for  willful  sin.  Methodists  do  not  believe 
that  the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin  was  imputed  or 
charged  to  his  descendants  in  any  sense  ex- 
cept that  certain  consequences  of  his  wrong- 
doing (as  is  more  or  less  true  of  every  par- 
ent's wrongdoing)  were  entailed  upon  his 
offspring.  Nor  does  the  inheriting  of  a  bias 
toward  sin  involve  any  culpability  or  guilt 


44  THE    DOCTBINES    OF   METHODISM. 

whatever  until  a  child  arrives  at  an  age  of 
moral  accountability  and  can  bring  the  sin- 
w^ard  tendencies  of  his  nature  under  the  do- 
minion of  grace,  but  refuses  to  do  so.  Then 
he  may  justly  be  held  responsible  and  punish- 
able for  it  and  its  consequences. 

Another  phrase  that  is  used  in  this  connec- 
tion, and  is  much  misunderstood,  is  "total 
depravity."  It  is  a  term  that  was  coined  by 
theologians  who  took  a  view  of  original  sin 
and  its  effect  that  Methodists  do  not  indorse. 
This  term  and  also  that  of  "original  guilt" 
are  quite  consistent  with  the  cardinal  doc- 
trines of  Augustinian  theology,  but  whenev- 
er they  appear  in  Methodist  theology  (as  they 
sometimes  do)  they  call  for  definition  and 
explanation.  There  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
both  inherited  and  acquired  depravity.  We 
believe  that  a  man  may,  by  persistent,  willful 
sin,  acquire  a  character  that  is  totally  depraved. 
But  the  theological  phrase  "total  depravity" 
refers  to  man's  state  as  affected  by  the  fall  of 
Adam  and  by  inherited  depravity,  and  car- 
ries along  with  it  the  idea  that  all  men  in 
their  natural  state  are  totally  depraved  and 
devoid  of  all  good.  To  say  that  sin  has  af- 
fected every  part  of  man's  nature  (body,  mind, 
heart,  soul,  spirit,  etc.),  that  it  is  total,   ex- 


THK  BIBLE  DOCTRINE   OP  MAN.  45 

tensively  considered,  is  undoubtedly  true; 
l)ut  to  say  that  all  men  until  regenerated  are 
totally  depraved  in  their  moral  nature  (a 
mussa  perditionis,  as  Augustine  said),  totally 
devoid  of  all  good,  as  bad  as  they  can  possi- 
bly be — tJiat  is  a  statement  not  in  accord  with 
Methodist  theolog}'.  Methodists  believe  that 
the  atonement  of  Christ  embraced  all  men  in 
its  saving  benefits;  and  that,  while  men  are  not 
actually  saved  by  it  until  they  accept  Christ 
by  faith,  yet  many  of  its  general  benefits  have 
extended  to  all  men  from  the  very  beginning 
of  the  history  of  the  race,  and  precede  per- 
sonal salvation.  There  is  some  good  in  all 
men,  even  in  uuregenerate  human  nature, 
which  is  therefore  not  to  be  regarded  as  to- 
tally depraved.  But,  while  this  is  true,  Meth- 
odist theology  affirms  that  whatever  of  good 
is  found  in  unregenerate  men  is  an  effect  of  the 
atonement,  and  therefore  due  not  to  nature 
but  to  grace.  If  the  fallen  race  had  been 
suffered  to  exist  and  propagate  itself  unre- 
deemed, it  Avould  have  become  totally  de- 
praved, but  God  did  not  suffer  it  to  go  unre- 
deemed. All  men,  as  a  result  of  the  atone- 
ment, have  gracious  ability  to  meet  the  con- 
ditions of  salvation. 


V. 

Chbist  the  Redeemer. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  studied  man  as 
originally  created  in  innocence  and  moral  free 
agency,  and  also  as  fallen,  in  a  state  of  sin  and 
guilt.  We  desire  now  to  study  man  as  re- 
deemed by  Christ.  Two  alternatives,  we  may 
say,  were  before  the  divine  mind  when  man 
fell  into  sin:  either  bring  the  race  to  an  end 
with  the  first  fallen  pair,  or  else,  if  they  are 
to  continue  to  propagate  themselves  as  fallen 
and  depraved  beings,  to  place  them  in  a  salva- 
ble  state  and  provide  counter  forces,  as  it  were, 
that  will  restore  the  moral  equilibrium  of  the 
human  will.  God,  in  his  infinite  wisdom, 
adopted  the  latter  method.  This  is  what 
man's  redemption  by  the  atonement  of  Christ 
did  for  him.  It  did  not  place  him  back  where 
he  was  before  the  fall;  but  it  did  accomplish 
this  result,  that  henceforth  he  was  regarded  and 
dealt  with  as  a  redeemed  fallen  being.  When 
man  falls,  then,  God  does  not  abandon  him  to 
sin,  but  in  mercy  provides  for  his  salvation. 
This  he  does  by  the  promise  of  a  Saviour,  in 
the  person  of  his  own  Son,  who  in  the  full- 
ness of  time  will  become  incarnate,  and,  by 
(4S) 


CHEIST   THK   KEDEEMER.  47 

his  life,  death,  and  resurrection,  will  atone 
for  the  sins  of  all  mankind  and  bring  such 
moral  forces  to  work  on  man  as  will  help  to 
counteract  the  downward  tendencies  of  his 
fallen  nature.  The  virtue  of  this  divinely 
provided  atonement  avails  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  does  not  wait  upon  the  actual  ad- 
vent and  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  before 
it  becomes  efficacious  for  man's  salvation.  A 
sacrificial  system  of  worship  was  employed 
that  was  made  symbolic  and  typical  of  the 
great  divine-human  Sacrifice  that  was  to  come, 
and  it  became,  in  connection  with  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  law,  not  only  a  temporary 
channel  of  faith  and  grace  to  Old  Testament 
penitents  and  believers,  but  a  "schoolmaster" 
to  prepare  the  world  for,  and  lead  it  to,  Christ 
the  Redeemer.  We  thus  see  bowman,  created 
in  moral  innocence,  became  man  fallen  in  mor- 
al guilt,  and  how  man  fallen  became  man  re- 
deemed. The  study  of  man,  then,  is  the  study 
of  a  fallen  but  redeemed  being. 

Methodists,  therefore,  believe  in  "original 
gi-ace"  quite  as  much  as  they  do  in  '•'original 
sin."  When  God  decided  to  allow  a  fallen 
and  sinful  race  to  propagate  itself,  he  decided 
in  immediate  and  inseparable  connection  there- 
with to  redeem  that  race.     Hence  the  history 


48  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

of  fallen  man  is  the  history  of  redeemed  man. 
When  the  first  probation  ended  with  Adam's 
fall,  a  new  and  gracious  probation  began  with 
a  race,  fallen,  it  is  true,  but  also  redeemed. 
"Original  sin  is  the  sin  of  Adam's  descendants 
as  under  a  covenant  of  grace.  What  it  would 
otherwise  have  been,  we  can  never  know." 
Man's  gracious  abilities  through  Christ  are 
quite  equal  to  his  moral  disabilities  thrpugh 
the  fall.  The  fallen  state,  with  original  sin 
and  the  accompanying  benefits  of  Christ's 
atoning  work,  doubtless  furnishes  as  favorable 
conditions  for  human  probation  and  the  devel- 
opment of  creaturely  holiness  as  did  the  un- 
fallen  state  without  the  divine-human  Redeem- 
mer.  So  much  for  the  effects  of  the  fall  on 
man.  And  as  to  its  bearing  on  God,  we  may 
say,  in  the  light  of  the  New  Testament  Scrip- 
tures, that  the  wisdom,  goodness,  holiness, 
and  love  of  God  are  manifested  far  more  in  the 
redemption  of  fallen  man  than  they  could  have 
been  by  the  mere  creation  of  one  or  many  un- 
fallen  beings  like  Adam  and  Eve. 

"  'Twas  great  to  speak  a  world  from  uaught. 
'Twas  greater  to  redeem." 

Christ  the  Redeemer  holds   the  foremost 
plaoe  in  the  theology  of  Methodism  and  all 


CHRIST    THE    REDEEMER. 


49 


Other  evangelical  Churches.     In  one  of  our 
articles  it  is  said  of  Christ  that  "two  whole 
and  perfect  natures,  that  is  to  say,  the  God- 
head and  manhood,  were  joined  together  in 
one  person,  never  to  be  divided,  whereof  is 
one  Christ,  very  God  and  very  man,  who  truly 
suffered,  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried,  to 
reconcile  his  Father  to  us,  and  to  be  a  sacri- 
fice, not  only  for  original  guilt,  but  also  for 
actual  sins  of  men."     His  sacrificial  death  is 
further  defined  as  "the  perfect  redemption, 
propitiation,  and  satisfaction  for  all  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world,  both  original  and  actual; 
and  there  is  none  other  satisfaction  for  sin 
but  that  alone."    It  is  further  said  that  the 
Heavenly  Father,  "of  his  tender  mercy,  did 
give  his  only-begotten  'Son  Jesus  Christ  to 
suffer  death  upon  the  cross  for  our  redemp- 
tion; who  made  there,  by  his  oblation  of  him- 
self once  offered,  a  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world." 

Methodists  believe  in  an  unlimited  atone- 
ment, but  they  do  not  believe  in  "universal- 
ism" — that  is,  that  all  sinners  are  actually 
saved  by  the  death  of  Christ.  Christ  has  put 
all  men  in  a  salvable  state,  and  has  endowed 
all  men  with  gracious  ability  to  embrace  the 
4 


50  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

benefits  of  his  atoning  provisions;  but  each 
man,  as  a  moral  free  agent,  must  decide  for 
himself  whether  or  not  he  will  be  freely  saved 
by  grace.     Christ  has  died  for  all  men  alike, 
for  those  who  do  not  accept  him  just  as  much 
as  for  those  who  do  accept  him.     Some  perish 
for  whom  Christ  died.     The  reason  why  one 
man  is  saved  and  another  lost  is  not  because 
Christ  died  for  the  one  in  any  sense  that  he 
did  not  die  for  the  other;  but  wholly  because 
the  one,  in  the  exercise  of  his  liberty,  accepted 
the  atonement  and  complied  with  its  condi- 
tions, and  the  other  did  not.     The  limitation 
of  the  atonement,  then,  is  the  work  of  man, 
not  of  God.     While  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of 
all  men,  he  is  in  a  special  sense  the  Saviour  of 
those  who  accept  him.     He  has  paid  in  full,  so 
to  speak,  the  redemption  price  of  all  who  are 
the  slaves  of  sin;  but  no  one  enters  upon  his 
purchased  freedom  until  he  complies  with  the 
conditions  of  his  Christian  citizenship  and  ful- 
fills those  moral  conditions  which  are  the  guar- 
antee that  his  liberty  will  not  be  turned  into 
license;  for  Christian  liberty  does  not  mean 
license  to  continue  in  sin. 

The  atonement  was  necessary  not  only  to 
satisfy  the  holiness  and  love  of  the  divine 
nature,   but  also   to   satisfy    the    immutable 


CHRIST    THK    REDEEMER.  51 

laws  of  the  divine  government.  If  there  is  a 
moral  Governor  of  the  universe,  there  must 
be  a  moral  government;  and  if  a  moral  gov- 
ernment, there  must  be  moral  laws;  and  if 
moral  laws  are  to  have  any  force,  their  viola- 
tion must  be  punished;  and  if  punishment  is 
to  accomplish  its  purpose,  it  must  be  adequate 
to  hold  in  existence  these  four  things  that 
logically  precede  it  and  depend  upon  it.  The 
governmental  problem  is  how  to  save  man 
the  sinner.  The  sinner  must  either  be  pun- 
ished or  some  substitute  must  be  found  to 
take  his  place  in  bearing  the  penalty,  or,  we 
may  say,  he  must  either  be  punished  or  some 
substitute  for  punishment  must  be  found  that 
will  be  compatible  with  the  laws  of  moral 
government.  If  substitution  be  allowed,  the 
following  conditions  must  be  met:  (1)  It  must 
be  voluntary;  forced  substitution  would  be  un- 
just to  the  substitute.  ( 2 )  The  substitute  must 
be  himself  innocent,  and  therefore  free  fi'om 
obligation  to  suffer  for  himself.  (3)  If  the 
substitute  is  to  count  for  more  than  one  indi- 
vidual, if  he  is  to  count  as  a '  'ransom  for  many," 
he  must  possess  an  intrinsic  superiority  either 
in  nature  or  in  official  rank  that  will  give  to 
his  person  a  governmental  value  equal  to  the 
number     for    whom    he   is  substituted.     (4) 


52  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

Some  condition  must  be  imposed  upon  the 
sinner  that  will  result  in  the  transformation 
of  his  moral  character;  otherwise  the  crim- 
inal would  be  turned  loose  upon  society, 
while  the  innocent  would  be  imprisoned  or 
put  to  death — and  no  government  could  stand 
this.  (5)  The  principle  of  substitution  must 
be  applied  in  such  a  way  as  to  deter  other 
men  from  sin,  and  not,  as  would  be  the  dan- 
ger, so  as  to  encourage  them  to  go  on  in  sin 
because  they  would  count  on  substitution. 
If  human  governments  could  meet  all  these 
conditions,  they  could  afford  to  enlarge  great- 
ly upon  the  principle  of  substitution  now 
used  to  a  very  limited  extent.  But  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  they  can  meet  none  of  these  re- 
quirements. But  the  divine  government  meets 
them  all.  Christ  is  a  voluntary  substitute 
who  is  entirely  innocent  and  holy  himself,  is 
possessed  of  a  divine  nature  which  gives  infi- 
nite value  to  his  person;  and  repentance  and 
faith  are  such  conditions  precedent  to  the  sin- 
ner's release  from  liability  to  punifehment 
that  on  their  fulfillment  God  not  only  pardons 
all  past  transgressions  but  regenerates  the 
sinner,  breaking  the  dominion  of  sin  in  his 
nature  and  making  him  a  new  creature  in 
Christ  Jesus.     This  is  what  is  known  as  the 


CHBIST    THE    RBDEEMBK.  53 

Christian  doctrine  of  substitution  or  vicarious 
sacrifice. 

The  following  truths  are  here  emphasized: 
(1)  It  is  the  divine -human  Christ  who 
atoned  for  man's  sins;  it  was  the  divinity  of 
Christ  that  gave  infinite  value  to  the  suffer- 
ings of  his  human  nature.  (2)  It  is  said  in 
the  first  quotation  above  that  Christ  suffered 
and  died  "to  reconcile  his  Father  to  us,"  but 
from  the  language  used  in  the  last  quotation 
we  may  say  that  the  gift  by  the  Heavenly 
Father  of  his  only  Son  is  an  expression  of 
his  love  and  an  evidence  that  he  is  himself 
already  reconciled,  and  our  chief  work  is  to 
get  sinners  reconciled  to  God.  (3)  His  atone- 
ment is  meant  to  meet  all  kinds  of  sin  and  the 
sins  of  all  men;  it  is  absolutely  unlimited  in 
its  power  to  save  all  sinners  and  to  save  them 
from  all  sin.  (4)  The  absolute  impossibility 
of  salvation  in  any  other  way  than  through 
the  atonement  of  Christ. 

While  the  divine  nature  and  all  the  attri- 
butes of  the  Triune  God  are  exercised  in  re- 
demption, there  are  three  attributes  that  are 
especially  conspicuous.  The  necessity  for 
atonement  is  found  in  the  holiness  of  God, 
which  must  forever  keep  itself  aloof  from  all 
creaturely  evil.      Either  the  sinner  must  be 


54       THE  DOCTKINES  OF  METHODISM. 

separated  froni  God  or  else  separated  from 
his  sin.  The  atonement  makes  the  latter  pos- 
sible. The  originating  cause  of  the  atone- 
ment is  found  in  the  love  of  God.  "God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only-begot- 
ten Sou."  "Herein  is  love,  not  that  we 
loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent 
his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 
Self-sacrificing  love  is  the  strongest  motive 
power  in  the  universe.  The  best  expression 
of  this  love  which  the  world  affords  is  in 
the  case  of  a  .father  giving  up  his  only  son 
and  sending  him  forth  to  suffer  and  it 
may  be  to  die  for  others.  It  would  cost  a 
father  much  less  of  sacrifice  to  go  himself 
than  to  send  his  son  on  such  a  mission.  The 
inspired  writers  represent  the  gift  of  Christ 
as  the  greatest  expression  and  proof  of  the 
love  of  the  Heavenly  Father  that  it  is  possible 
for  an  infinite  God  to  give.  The  greatest  ex- 
pression of  self-sacrificing  love  that  a  son  can 
give  is  to  leave  the  comforts  of  his  home  and 
go  himself  on  a  mission  of  mercy  in  which, 
to  save  others,  he  will  need  to  suffer  and  die. 
The  coming  of  Christ  into  our  world  to  save 
sinners  by  his  death  was  no  less  his  own  vol- 
untary act  than  it  was  an  expression  of  God's 
love.      Thus   the  atonement  is  at  once  the 


CHEIST    THE    REDEEMER.  .   55 

highest  expression  of  love  on  the  part  of  both 
God  the  Father  and  God  the  Son.  But  not 
only  is  the  atonement  the  best  possible  ex- 
pression of  both  the  holiness  and  the  love  of 
God,  it  is  the  wisest  plan  that  the  omniscient 
mind  of  God  could  devise  for  saving  lost  men, 
guarding  their  free  agency,  and  at  the  same 
time  bringing  to  bear  upon  the  free  will  the 
strongest  possible  motives  to  righteousness. 
It  was  the  only  possible  method  whereby  God 
could  be  just  and  yet  the  justifier  of  the  un- 
godly. 

No  doctrine  of  Christianity  is  more  thor- 
oughly supported  by  the  uniform  and  abound- 
ing teachings  of  the  New  Testament  writers 
than  the  doctrine  of  an  unlimited  atonement. 
"He  was  wounded  for  our  transgi'essions,  he 
was  bruised  for  our  iniquities:  the  chastise- 
ment of  our  peace  was  upon  him;  and  with  his 
stripes  we  are  healed.  .  .  ,  And  the  Lord  hath 
laid  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."  (Isa. 
liii.  5,  6.)  "The  Son  of  man  is  come  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost."  (Luke 
xix.  10.)  "God  our  Saviour;  who  will  have 
all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  imto  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  For  there  is  one 
God,  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and 
men,  the  man  Christ  eTesus,  who  gave  himself 


56    •  THE    DOCTRINES    OV   METHODISM. 

a  ransom  for  all,  .  .  .  who  is  the  Sav- 
iour of  all  men,  especially  of  those  that  be- 
lieve. "  ( 1  Tim.  ii.  3-6,  iv.  10. )  "  That  he  by 
the  grace  of  God  should  taste  death  for  every 
man.  .  .  .  He  is  able  also  to  save  them  to 
the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by  him." 
(Heb.  ii.  9,  vii.  25.)  "Who  his  own  self 
bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree. 
.  .  .  Christ  also  hath  once  suffered  for 
sins,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might 
bring  us  to  God."  (1  Pet.  ii.  24,  iii.  18.) 
"And  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins:  and 
not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world."  (1  John  ii.  2.)  These  pas- 
sages, rightly  interpreted,  justify  every  state- 
ment that  we  have  made  above  concerning 
the  doctrine  of  human  redemption.  Many 
of  these  truths  were  very  happily  expressed 
by  John  Wesley  in  these  familiar  lines: 

Lord,  I  believe  thy  precious  blood, 
Which,  at  the  mercy  seat  of  God, 
Forever  doth  for  sinners  plead. 
For  me,  e'en  for  my  soul,  was  shed. 

Lord,  I  believe  were  sinners  more 
Than  sands  upon  the  ocean  shore, 
Thou  hast  for  all  a  ransom  paid. 
For  all  a  full  atonement  made. 


VI. 

The  Doctrines  PEKTAiNiNa  to 

Persoi^al  Salvatiok. 
If  we  say  that  "  God  the  Father  plans,  God 
the  Son  executes,  and  God  the  Holy  Spirit  ap- 
plies," we  have  a  formula  which  states  with 
approximate  accuracy   the  specific  work  of 
each  of  the  -three  persons  of  the  Trinity  in  the 
gi-eat  work  of  human  redemption.     The  exe- 
cution of  the  divine  plan  of  redemption  was 
committed  to  the  Son,  and  as  fulfilled  it  is 
called  the  atonement.     The  application  of  the 
atoning  work  of  Christ  to  the  actual  salvation 
of  men  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose 
gracious  influences  act  upon  and  cooperate 
with  the  free  will  of  man.     It  is  but  another 
method  of  stating  the  same  great  truth  to  say 
that  the  originating  cause  of  man's  salvation 
is  the  love, of  God,  the  meritorious  cause  is 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  the  efficient  cause  is 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  deter- 
mining cause  is  the  free  will  of  the  redeemed 
sinner.     In  this  chapter  we  are  especially  con- 
cerned with  the  two  elements  last  named. 

Personal  salvation  is  a  result  of  cooperation 

(57) 


58  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

between  God  and  man,  between  the  divine  and 
tlie  human  will.  Although  salvation  is  of 
God's  free  grace,  it  is  none  the  less  of  man's 
free  choice.  While  man  cannot  save  himself, 
neither  can  God  save  him,  in  keeping  with  the 
revealed  principles  of  his  moral  government, 
unless  man  himself  chooses  to  fulfill  the  con- 
ditions of  salvation.  As  a  mere  matter  of 
power,  of  course  the  omnipotent  divine  will 
can  cause  the  finite  human  will  to  do  any- 
thing, to  put  forth  any  volition  whatsoever; 
but  such  a  divinely  necessitated  human  voli- 
tion could  not  be  free,  and  in  the  matter  of 
personal  salvation  man  is  entirely  free  to  ful- 
fill or  not  to  fulfill  the  conditions  of  salvation. 
The  Bible  I'epresents  God  as  being  without  par- 
tiality and  no  respecter  of  persons.  God  our 
Saviour  "will  have  all  men  to  be  saved  and  to 
come  unto  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,"  and  is 
"not  willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  that 
all'  should  come  to  repentance."  Personal  sal- 
vation and  damnation,  therefore,  are  not  de- 
termined by  election  and  nonelection  in  eter- 
nity, but  by  the  free  will  of  man.  The  con- 
dition of  fallen  man  as  affected  by  the  atone- 
ment is  one  of  gracious  ability  to  fulfill  all 
conditions  necessary  to  salvation;  but  while 
his  present  moral  ability  is  of  gi-ace,   that 


I'ERSOXAL  SALVATION.  59 

grace  itself  is  free  and  not  arbitrary  and  irre- 
sistible. 

If  the  work  of  personal  salvation  b®  ana- 
lyzed and  separated  into  its  various  parts,  it 
may  be  said  to  consist  of  the  following  ele- 
ments: (1)  Conviction  of  sin,  which  is  that 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  conscience 
of  the  sinner  by  which  he  is  awakened  and 
made  to  realize  his  sinful  and  lost  condition; 
(2)  repentance,  which  is  such  godly  sorrow  on 
account  of  sin  as  leads  to  the  forsaking  of  all 
sin  and  the  confession  of  sin;  (3)  faith,  or  that 
belief  of  the  mind  and  trust  of  the  heart  by 
which  the  penitent  sinner  accepts  Jesus  Christ 
as  a  personal  Saviour;  (4)  justification,  which  is 
something  done  for  us,  being  that  act  of  God 
by  which  he  pardons  all  the  past  sins  of  the 
penitent  believer;  (5)  regeneration,  which  is 
something  done  in  us,  being  that  act  of  God  by 
which  he  breaks  the  dominion  of  the  sin  of  na- 
ture and  creates  us  anew,  which  transforma- 
tion is  called  the  new  birth  and  is  followed 
by  adoption  into  the  family  of  God;  (6)  the 
witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  spirit  of  the 
regenerate  believer,  testifying  to  his  pardon 
and  adoption,  and  producing  a  di^^ne  convic- 
tion of  salvation;  (7)  sanctification,  which  as 
commonly  defined  refers  to  that  work  of  the 


(50  THK    DOCTRINES    OF   METHODISM. 

Holy  Spirit,  in  cooperation  with  the  regener- 
ate spirit,  which  separates  the  soul  from  all 
sin,  carrying  on  the  work  begun  in  regenera- 
tion, and  completing  it  in  Christian  perfection. 

The  first  six  elements  enumerated  above 
constitute  "conversion,"  as  this  term  is  popu- 
larly used.  *  There  are  three  salvations  spoken 
of  in  the  Bible.  "Repent  of  thy  sins  and  be- 
lieve in  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved;"  this  is  the  fii-st.  "Work  out  your 
own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling;"  this 
is  the  second,  and  it  is  a  continuous,  pro- 
gressive work.  ' '  He  that  endureth  to  the  end 
shall  be  saved;"  this  is  the  third,  and  refers 
to  final  salvation  at  the  last  day.  A  clear 
knowledge  of  all  these  doctrines  may  not  be 
necessary  to  salvation,  but  there  can  be  no  in- 
telligent type  of  piety  that  is  not  based  upon 
both  an  intellectual  and  an  experimental  knowl- 
edge of  all  that  the  Scriptures  represent  as 
necessay  to  salvation. 

Conviction  of  sin  is  a  result  of  the  Holy 
Spirit's  application  of  the  preached  word  and 

*  If  the  term  "  sanctification  "  be  used  in  its  strictly 
Scriptural  sense,  it  also  is  included  in  conversion. 
But  the  common  theological  use  of  that  term  refers 
it  to  a  work  of  grace,  either  progressively  or  instau- 
taneonsiy  wrought,  subsequent  to  "conversion." 


PERSONAL  SALVATION.  61 

the  divine  law  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  a 
sinner,  and  is  often  irresistibly  produced;  but 
while  the  sinner  may  be  convicted  against  his 
will,  and  in  spite  of  efforts  to  the  contrary,  yet 
he  is  not  irresistibly  converted.  Under  con- 
viction he  is  free  either  to  resist  the  wooings 
of  the  Spirit  or  to  follow  the  Spirit's  leadings 
on  to  repentance  and  faith.  A  moral  free 
agent  is  never  more  free  than  in  that  intense 
and  critical  moment  when  he  is  irresistibly 
awakened  and  brought  to  a  knowledge  of  his 
true  condition.  It  is  the  most  critical  and  re- 
sponsible moment  in  all  his  life;  for  then  it  is 
that  his  eternal  destiny  is  hanging  in  the  bal- 
ance, and  nothing  but  the  will  of  the  free  agent 
can  determine  which  way  the  scales  of  destiny 
shall  be  made  to  turn.  Conviction  of  sin  is 
one  of  the  chief  offices  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as 
Christ  promised:  "When  he  is  come,  he  will 
reprove  [convict]  the  world  of  sin,  and  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment."  (John  xvi. 
8. )  And  he  began  this  work  on  the  day  of  his 
coming  at  Pentecost:  "  Now  when  they  heard 
this,  they  were  pricked  in  their  heart,  and  said 
unto  Peter  and  to  the  rest  of  the  apostles,  Men 
and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ? "  (Acts  ii.  37. ) 
Repentance  and  faith  are  man's  work,  the 
only  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit  here  being  to 


62  THE    DOCTRINES    OF   METHODISM. 

graciously  aid  man  in  fulfilling  these  human 
conditions  of  salvation.  The  necessity,  na- 
ture, and  benefits  of  repentance  may  be  shown 
in  these  words  of  Scripture:  "Except  ye  re- 
pent, ye  shall  all  likewise  perish."  (Luke 
xiii.  3.)  "Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 
and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts:  and 
let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will 
have  mercy  upon  him;  and  to  our  God,  for 
he  will  abundantly  pardon."  (Isa.  Iv.  7.)  Of 
faith  it  is  said:  "Without  faith  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  please  God:  for  he  that  cometh  to  God 
must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  a  re- 
warder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him." 
(Heb.  xi.  6.)  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  (Acts  xvi. 
31.)  This  means  to  accept  Christ  as  a  per- 
sonal Saviour.  Confession  of  sin  and  confes- 
sion of  Christ  prove  that  repentance  and  faith 
are  true.  Justification  and  regeneration,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  entii»ely  God's  work;  with 
them  man  has  nothing  to  do,  save  that  he  per- 
forms the  conditions  on  which  the  pardon  and 
regeneration  of  his  soul  are  suspended.  Jus- 
tification is  the  pardon  of  sin,  and  is  condi- 
tioned not  on  our  good  works  but  on  our 
faith:  "To  him  that  worketh  not,  but  belie v- 
eth  on  him  that  justifieth  the  imgodly,    his 


PERSOXAT^  RAI-VATIO^'.  63 

faith  is  counted  for  righteousness."  (Rom. 
iv.  6.)  To  the  penitent  the  promise  is:  "I 
will  f  or^ve  their  iniquity,  and  I  will  remember 
their  sin  no  more."  (Jer.  xxxi.  34:.)  But  a 
deeper  work  than  this  is  necessary:  "Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  God."  (John  iii.  3. )  This  is  re- 
generation; it  also  is  conditioned  on  faith:  "As 
many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  God."     (John  i.  12.) 

In  the  Calvinistic  system  regeneration  comes 
first;  and  faith,  repentance,  and  justification 
follow.  Faith  is,  according  to  Calvinistic 
theology,  the  first  act  of  a  regenerate  soul. 
Regeneration,  (which  is  confused  with  "ef- 
fectual calling")  and  irresistible  grace,  must 
needs  come  first  because  the  fallen  human 
race  are  regarded  as  totally  depraved,  as  ab- 
solutely dead  in  sin,  to  exact  conditions  of 
whom  would  be  like  demanding  acts  of  a  phys- 
ically dead  man  as  a  condition  of  imparting 
life  to  him.  If  God  had  from  -all  eternity 
unconditionally  elected  certain  ones  to  salva- 
tion, and  foreordained  the  means  and  the  time 
of  their  eflScacious  call  and  conversion;  if  it 
were  true  that  regeneration  comes  first,  and 
faith  and  repentance  follow,  then  would  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  unconverted 


64  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

and  the  call  of  sinners  to  repentance  and  sal- 
vation seem  to  be  a  useless  work,  and  the 
present  mode  of  preaching  the  gospel  and 
pressing  the  claims  of  the  Christian  religion 
upon  the  consciences  of  sinners  could  not  be 
justified.  More  faithful  to  Scripture  is  that 
theology  which  teaches  that  man,  though  fall- 
en, and  in  a  sense  morally  dead,  is  yet  recog- 
nized as  a  living  and  responsible  moral  agent, 
endowed  graciously  with  ability  to  seek  and 
obtain  salvation  through  divinely  appointed 
conditions  (repentance  of  sin  and  faith  in 
Christ),  on  the  fulfillment  of  which  God  gra- 
ciously pardons  all  his  past  transgressions, 
and  so  transforms  his  sinful  moral  nature  as 
to  deliver  him  from  the  dominion  of  sin  and 
make  him  a  new  creatm'e  in  Christ.  It  is  of 
the  greatest  importance  that  we  have  true 
scriptural  views  concerning  the  doctrines  of 
personal  salvation.  We  should  make  no  mis- 
take in  answering  the  question  of  the  awakened 
sinner:  "What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?" 

It  may  be  asked  why  personal  salvation  on 
God's  part  consists  of  both  justification  and 
regeneration.  Why  would  not  justification 
alone  or  regeneration  alone  suffice  to  make 
complete  the  salvation  of  a  soul?  The  an- 
swer is  not  far  to  seek.     It  is  because  there 


PERSONAL  SALVATION.  65 

are  two  kinds  of  sins — actual  sin,  or  voluntary 
transgression  of  the  law  of  God;  and  the  sin 
of  natm*e,  which  consists  of  both  original  sin 
and  the  reflex  influence  on  moral  character  of 
repeated  acts  of  sin,  From  both  of  these 
kinds  of  sin  man  needs  to  be  saved.  Justifi- 
cation, or  pardon,  concerns  actual  sin  alone, 
and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  sin  of  nature; 
and  so  repentance  also  is  of  actual  sins,  and 
not  of  original  sin.  Regeneration,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  to  do  exclusively  with  the  sin 
of  nature — original  sin  and  the  habitus  of  sin, 
or  hereditary  and  acquired  depravity.  A 
tendency  toward  disease  (consumption,  for 
example)  may  be  inherited,  or  it  may  be 
superinduced  by  acts  of  imprudence  or  by 
sickness,  or  it  may  be  both  inherited  and 
superinduced;  and  if  so,  the  two  tendencies 
run  together  and  become  one.  And  so  it  is 
with  fallen  man:  he  inherits  a  bias  toward 
sin;  and  this  is  strengthened  by  the  effects  of 
actual  sin,  both  alike  calling  for  that  divine 
act  which  is  designated  as  regeneration.  If 
man  were  simply  justified,  and  not  at  the  same 
time  regenerated,  his  past  sins  would  be  par- 
doned; but  he  would  be  left  under  the  domin- 
ion of  his  sinful  nature,  and  would  necessarily 
continue  to  sin.  Hence  regeneration  is  rep- 
5 


66  THE   DOCTRINES   OF   METHODISM. 

resented  as  "breaking  the  dominion  of  sin," 
"cleansing  the  moral  nature,"  "being  born 
again,"  "created  anew."  Acts  of  sin  may  be 
compared  to  the  black  characters  written  upon 
a  sheet  of  paper;  the  sin  of  nature,  to  discol- 
oring elements  that  enter  into  the  very  fiber 
of  the  paper  itself.  The  blotting  out  of  sins 
(Acts  iii.  19)  is  the  pardon  of  all  actual  trans- 
gressions, but  another  and  different  act  is  re- 
quired to  cleanse  and  purify  the  sin-polluted 
nature  of  man.  Justification  and  regenera- 
tion always  take  place  at  the  same  time. 

Conviction  of  sin  is  the  witness  of  the  Spirit 
to  the  sinner's  true  condition,  and  so  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit  to  the  regenerate  believer 
may  be  called  conviction  of  salvation.  It  is 
thus  that  the  Holy  Spirit  both  begins  and 
crowns  the  work  of  personal  salvation.  The 
soul  that  undergoes  all  these  experiences  is  a 
genuine  and  a  happy  convert,  and  nothing 
less  than  an  experience  of  all  these  elements 
of  personal  salvation  entitles  one  either  to  re- 
ceive from  God,  as  a  sacred  seal  to  his  salva- 
tion, the  witness  of  adoption  and  the  assm-- 
ance  of  sonship,  or  to  be  regarded  by  man 
as  a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus.  "The 
Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit, 
that  we  are  the  children  of  God."     (Rom. 


PBB80NAL  SALVATION.  67 

viii.  16.)  "He  that  belie veth  on  the  Son  of 
God  hath  the  witness  in  himself."  (1  John 
V.  10. )  But  what  the  child  of  God  is  conscious 
of  is  not  "the  witness  of  the  Spirit,"  but  the 
fact  of  being  saved.  It  is  the  office  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  convince  him  of  this  fact.  But  this 
blessed  assurance  that  belongs  by  right  to 
every  child  of  God  should  not  be  confused  with 
a  certain  ebullition  of  joy  that  sometimes  ac- 
companies certain  ' '  happy  conversions. "  The 
latter  is  a  thing  of  temperament ;  some  have 
it  and  some  do  not;  moreover,  it  "comes  and 
goes."  But  the  true  witness  of  the  Spirit  is 
not  a  thing  of  temperament,  it  does  not  "  come 
and  go ; "  but  is  a  birthright  to  be  claimed  by 
every  child  of  God,  no  matter  what  his  temper- 
ament. 

"Quit  your  meanness,  and  be  saved,"  may 
pass  for  a  "short  method  of  salvation"  and 
"religion  made  easy,"  and  may  be  followed 
by  shaking  the  preacher's. hand  and  joining 
the  Church;  but  it  is  not  the  full  and  com- 
plete salvation  from  sin  that  is  described  in 
the  Bible.  Conviction  of  sin,  repentance, 
faith,  justification,  regeneration,  the  witness 
of  the  Spii'it — all  these  are  necessary  to  make 
a  genuine  Bible  Christian.  Nor  have  we  any 
right  to  make  personal  salvation  any  simpler 


68  THK    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

or  easier  than  the  Bible  makes  it.  When  con- 
version is  based  upon  an  intelligent  under- 
standing and  a  genuine  experience  of  all  these 
elements  of  salvation,  then,  and  then  only, 
does  it  mean  experimental  religion  and  impart 
spiritual  power.  Nor  should  we  recognize  any 
conscious  sin  as  compatible  with  the  regen- 
erate state  except  to  be  abhorred  and  forsaken, 
pardoned  and  cleansed,  as  soon  as  it  is  seen  by 
the  child  of  God.  This  ideal  of  holiness  and 
freedom  from  sin  is  the  birthright  pri\'ilege 
and  duty  of  every  child  of  God  from  the  very 
moment  of  his  regeneration;  and  we  must  not 
lower  God's  high  standard  to  make  it  fit  man's 
shortcomings. 

Great  as  is  the  work  above  described  in  the 
salvation  of  a  soul,  it  is  not  all  that  is  to  be 
done;  indeed,  it  is  nothing  more  than  entrance 
upon  the  Christian  life.  And  the  Christian 
life  does  not  consist  in  merely  retaining  what 
has  been  thus  attained.  The  victory  over  sin 
has  not  yet  been  fully  and  finally  won;  the 
first  great  battle  has  been  successfully  fought, 
and  the  long  warfare  has  begun.  All  sin  "in 
sight"  was  given  up  at  and  in  "conversion;" 
but  other  sin  will  presently  come  in  sight  as 
the  Christian  advances  and  his  spiritual  vision 
arrows   clearer.     And    all   holiness   and  love 


PEKSONAL  SALVATION.  fi9 

and  duty  in  sight  were  welcomed,  and  assumed 
according  to  the  degree  of  knowledge  and 
faith  then  possessed-;  but  knowledge  and 
faith  will  increase,  and  soon  it  will  appear 
that  if  the  character  attained  in  justification 
and  regeneration  was  regarded  as  "perfec- 
tion," \t  was  a  very  imperfect  perfection. 
Sinlessness,  entire  holiness,  the  perfect  life — 
that  is  the  ever-advancing  goal  that  is  ahead 
of  the  regenerate  child  of  God. 

Christian  perfection  is  the  name  given  to  this 
doctrine  which  holds  a  place  of  highest  hon- 
or in  Methodist  theology.  Perfection  is  a 
term  which  the  Scriptures  use  in  describing 
the  ideal  religious  experience  and  character 
which  has  been  made  possible  by  divine  grace. 
Methodism,  taking  the  term  from  the  Bible, 
teaches  that  it  is  not  only  a  possibility  and  a 
privilege,  but  the  duty  of  every  child  of  God  to 
attain  unto  that  type  of  Christian  experience 
and  character,  and  to  lead  that  life  that  may 
be  fitly  described  by  the  term  "Christian  per- 
fection." As  to  what  is  to  be  accomplished 
progressively  and  what  instantaneously,  and 
whether  or  not  Christian  perfection  is  a 
thing  to  be  "professed" — these  are  points 
of  secondary  importance  about  which  Metho- 
dists do  now  differ,  and  always  have  differed. 


VII. 
The  Doctrine  of  the  Future 

LiPE. 

It  was  a  saying  of  one  of  the  early  Metho- 
dists that  "man's  chief  business  in  this  world 
is  to  get  successfully  out  of  it. "  That  was  but 
another  way  of  stating  a  truth  so  often  ut- 
tered, in  one  form  or  another,  by  our  Lord — 
that  the  life  that  begins  at  death  is  the  one 
with  reference  to  which  we  should  constantly 
live  in  this  world.  "What  is  a  man  profit- 
ed if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose 
his  own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  ex- 
change for  his  soul?"  But  this  view  of  the 
life  to  come — that  it  is  the  full  and  final  reali- 
zation of  the  divine  purpose  concerning  man — 
instead  of  making  this  life  of  little  impor- 
tance, tends,  on  the  contrary,  to  invest  it  with 
the  utmost  possible  importance,  seeing  that  it 
makes  this  life  a  probation  in  which  man  is 
charged  with  the  responsibility  of  deciding  by 
his  conduct  here  what  is  to  be  his  destiny  in 
the  world  to  come.  The  crowning  attribute 
of  man  as  a  creature  of  God  is  his  moral  free 
agency,  and  this  is  true  only  because  this  life 
(70) 


THE    DOCTRINE    OF   THE    FUTURE   LIFE.  71 

is  probationary  and  preparatory  to  that  life 
which  is  to  come. 

Eschatology  is  that  department  of  Christian 
theology  that  treats  of  those  events  which  will 
transpire  in  the  last  days.  Events  that  are 
signals  or  forerunners  of  the  end  of  the  world, 
as  well  as  events  that  accompany  and  follow  it, 
come  imder  this  head.  The  one  conspicuous 
event  that  will  itself  determine  the  end  of  the 
world  is  the  second  coming  of  Christ.  Among 
the  notable  events  which  are  associated  with 
the  end  of  the  world  are  the  following: 

(1)  The  gospel  will  he  preached  throughout 
the  entire  world:  extensively  it  will  have 
reached  all  parts  of  the  earth  before  the  end 
will  come,  though,  as  to  its  intensive  effects, 
there  will  doubtless  always  be  some  people 
who  have  not  come  under  its  gracious  influ- 
ences.    (Matt.  xxiv.  14.) 

(2)  Tlie  Jews  will  he  hr ought  in  before  the 
end  comes.  This  does  not  probably  refer  to 
an  actual  restoration  of  the  entire  Jewish  race 
to  Palestine,  as  some  hold,  but  rather  to  the 
conversion  of  the  Jews  as  a  race  to  Christian- 
ity.    (Rom.  xi.  15,  25.) 

(3)  The  millennium  will  be  a  period  of  a 
thousand  years  of  such  peace  and  prosperity 
to  the  Church  that  Christ  is  described  as  then 


72  THK   DOCTRINES   OF  METHODISM. 

reigning  upon  the  earth  in  some  unique  and 
significant  manner  not  true  of  other  periods. 
(Rev.  XX.  1-9. ) 

(4)  The  coming  of  '^Antichrist,'''  or  the 
"Man  of  sin,"  who  will  be  the  enemy  of  God 
and  man,  and  who  will,  it  seems,  embody  both 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  power,  and  be  the  lead- 
er in  a  ser^'  -^us  and  widespread  apostasy  from 
the  faith.     ,Matt.  xxiv.  21;  2  Thess.  i.  8. ) 

(5)  Chris fs  second  comitig  in  visible  form  is 
the  most  important  event  that  shall  precede 
the  end  of  the  world.  ' '  Premillenarians "  say 
that  this  second  coming  will  take  place  at  the 
beginning  of  the  millennium,  and  that  the 
millennium  will  consist  chiefly  in  his  visible 
and  personal  reign  upon  the  earth  for  a  thou- 
sand years.  ' '  Postmillenarians  "  believe  that 
Christ's  second  coming  will  take  place  at  the 
end  of  the  millennium,  and  hence  describe  his 
reign  during  the  millennium  as  moral  and  spir- 
itual, and  not  in  actual  and  visible  person. 
They  interpret  the  millennium  as  a  period  of 
indefinite  length.  Christ  taught  the  certainty 
of  the  fact  of  his'  second  coming,  but  with 
equal  clearness  the  uncertainty  of  the  time  of 
his  coming.  (Mark  xiii.  32;  Acts  i.  11;  2 
Thess.  i.  7.) 

(6)  The  second  coming  of  Christ  will  be 


THE   DOCTBINK   OF   THK   FUTUKB   LIFE.  73 

followed,  according  to  the  last,  or  postmille- 
narian,  view  (which  has  most  generally  pre- 
vailed in  the  Church),  by  the  re»arreotion  of 
all  men  from  the  dead.  This  resurrection  will 
embrace  the  physical  body,  whose  identity 
will  be  preserved.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  human 
body  changes  in  toto  once  every  seven  years, 
and  yet  identity  of  physical  person  is  pre- 
served in  spite  of  these  numerous  and  total 
changes  in  substance.  If  God  does  this  in  na- 
ture, why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing  incred- 
ible that  he  should  in  the  resurrection  repro- 
duce the  same  body,  even  though  there  be  no 
particle  of  matter  in  the  resurrection  body 
that  was  originally  in  the  earthy  body  which 
was  buried  and  soon  thereafter  disintegrated 
and  absorbed  in  surrounding  nature?  The 
resurrection  body  of  the  saints,  it  is  stated, 
shall  be  made  glorious,  like  unto  the  resurrec- 
tion body  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  But  although  it 
is  our  mortal  and  physical  body  that  is  rep- 
resented as  being  raised,  the  new  resurrection 
body  is  sometimes  described  as  a  "spiritual 
body,"  and  certain  it  is  that  the  attributes  of 
the  resurrection  body  that  is  described  in  the 
Scriptures  belong  much  more  properly  to 
what  we  conceive  spirits  to  be  than  to  what 
we  know  material  bodies  to  be.     (Isa.  xxvi. 


74  THE    DOCTRINKS    OF    METHODISM. 

19;  Dan.  xii.  2;  Luke  xx.  37;  John  v.  28,  29; 
Rom.  viii.  11;  1  Cor.  xv.  44;  Phil.  iii.  21.) 

(7)  What  is  called  the  intermediate  or  dis- 
enibodied  state  that  begins  with  the  death  of 
the  body  will  end  at  the  resurrection,  when 
the  long-separated  spirits  are  reunited  to 
their  resurrection  bodies.  The  intermedi- 
ate state  is  not  a  state  of  unconsciousness,  or 
"soul  sleep,"  as  some  affirm,  but  a  state  of 
conscious  misery  for*  the  wicked  and  of  con- 
scious happiness  for  the  good.  ( Luke  xvi.  22, 
xxiii.  43;  2  Cor.  v.  8. ) 

(8)  The  general  resurrection  will  be  followed 
by  the  day  of  jlnal  jjudgment^  in  which  aU  men 
will  be  judged,  the  wicked  being  separated 
from  the  good  as  a  shepherd  doth  separate  the 
goats  from  the  sheep.  This  general  and  final 
judgment  will  simply  confirm  the  sentence 
pronounced  upon  both  the  wicked  and  the 
good  at  death.  "It  is  appointed  unto  men 
once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judgment." 
"For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judg- 
ment seat  of  Christ;  that  every  one  may  re- 
ceive the  things  done  in  this  body,  according 
to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  be  good  or 
bad."  (Matt.  xxv.  32;  Acts  xvii.  31;  Rom. 
ii.  16.) 

(9)  The  future  lot  of  the  wiched  is  repre- 


THIS   DOCTRINE    OF   THK    FUTURE    LIFE.  75 

sented  as  one  of  unrelieved  and  unending  mis- 
ery. This  misery  does  not  consist  so  much  in 
sufferings  externally  inflicted  as  in  the  pangs 
and  torment  of  a  guilty  conscience.  And  if  it 
be  true  that  the  misery  of  the  lost  grows  thus 
out  of  evil  character  rather  than  out  of  mere 
external  environment,  it  follows  that  misery 
is  proportioned  to  guilt.  But  the  misery  and 
punishment  of  no  lost  soul,  not  even  the 
worst  in  hell,  will  be  one  iota  more  in  severity 
than  that  soul  justly  deserves.  God,  who  is 
both  omniscient  and  infinitely  just,  is  the  su- 
preme and  final  arbiter  in  this  matter.  And 
it  is  worth  our  while  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
most  awful  words  ever  uttered  concerning  the 
doom  of  the  incorrigibly  wicked  and  finally 
impenitent  in  the  life  to  come  came  not  from 
Moses  the  lawgiver  amid  the  thunders  of  Si- 
nai, nor  from  Jeremiah,  the  stern  prophet  of 
old,  nor  from  John  the  Baptist,  nor  from 
Paul;  but  from  the  Son  of  Man,  whose  gospel 
was  one  of  tenderness  and  love.  We  need  to 
remember  that,  while  it  is  truly  said  that 
"God  is  love,"  it  is  also  said  that  "God  is  a 
consuming  fire"  to  wicked  and  impenitent  sin- 
ners. (Matt.  XXV.  34,  46;  Luke  xvi.  25;  2 
Thess.  i.  9;  Rev.  xx.  10-14. ) 

( 10)  The  future  lot  of  the  ri^ghteous  is  repre- 


76  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

sented  as  one  of  full  and  unending  happiness. 
The  happiness  of  heaven  grows  not  primarily 
out  of  the  place,  out  of  mere  external  environ- 
ment, but  out  of  character,  and  therefore  dif- 
fers in  degree  for  different  individuals,  being 
proportioned  to  the  capacity  of  each  soul  to 
extract  happiness  out  of  the  place  that  is  pre- 
pared for  God's  children.  If  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  future  life  be  true,  this  life  of 
probation  is  a  training  school  for  heaven,  and 
the  object  of  life  is  the  development,  by  grace 
and  love,  by  service  and  sacrifice,  of  a  holy 
character,  which  constitutes  a  moral  capacity 
for  extracting  happiness  out  of  heaven.  The 
saints  in  heaven  will  not  be  rewarded  on  the 
ground  of  their  good  works,  as  if  they  were 
meritorious,  but  it  has  pleased  God  that  they 
shall  be  rewarded  "according  to  their  good 
works."  All  souls  in  heaven  will  be  holy,  and 
therefore  happy;  but  some  develop  more  of 
holiness  in  this  life  than  others;  and  therefore, 
as  "one  star  differeth  from  another  star  in 
glory,"  so  some  souls  will  be  happier  than 
others  in  heaven.  As  spiritual  growth  is  the 
great  law  of  spiritual  life  in  this  world,  so  the 
heavenly  life  will  doubtless  be  one  of  ever-in- 
creasing growth  in  holiness,  and  hence  of 
ever-increasing  happiness.     The  more  of  holi- 


THE    DOCTRINE    OF   THE   FUTUBJB   LIFE.  77 

ness,  the  more  will  there  be  of  happiness. 
(Matt.  XXV.  34, 46;  John  xiv.  2;  2  Cor.  v.  10. ) 

Most  of  these  subjects  embraced  in  Chris- 
tian eschatology  have  been  made  the  subject 
of  endless  speculation.  It  is  a  department  of 
theology  which  has  a  great  fascination  for  a 
certain  class  of  minds.  While  everything  be- 
longing to  Christian  revelation  is  of  impor-* 
tance,  yet  it  is  plain  that  some  doctrines  are 
far  more  important  than  others,  and  this  be- 
cause they  are  more  vital  and  practical.  The 
truths  whose  vital  importance  transcends  all 
others  in  this  department  of  doctrine  are  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  fact  that  man's 
destiny  in  the  future  and  eternal  life  is  deter- 
mined by  his  free  conduct  in  this  life.  To  the 
consideration  of  these  truths  we  shall  there- 
fore devote  our  attention  mainly. 

While  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life  is  con- 
tained in  the  Old  Testament,  yet  much  less 
stress  is  laid  upon  it  there  than  is  done  in  the 
New  Testament.  With  the  children  of  Israel 
"transitory  promises"  that  pertain  to  this 
life  had  relatively  more  weight  and  influence 
than  with  New  Testament  believers  generally, 
who  have  been  trained  in  the  school  of  Christ. 
St.  Paul  tells  us  that  Christ  "brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light  through  the  gospel." 


78  THE   DOCTRINES   OF  METHODISM. 

The  existence  of  the  soul  after  death  is  not 
only  assumed  in  the  New  Testament;  it  is  ev- 
erywhere taught  and  everywhere  emphasized. 
Hence,  in  this  department  of  Christian  theol- 
ogy more  than  in  any  other,  we  are  under  the 
necessity  of  confining  ourselves  almost  entire- 
ly to  the  revelations  contained  in  the  New 
Testament. 

The  Bible  teaches  that  this  life  is  the  seed- 
time and  the  life  to  come  is  the  harvest.  We 
shall  reap  in  the  future  life  the  fruit  of  om- 
seed-sowing  in  this  life.  The  law  of  sowing 
and  reaping  is  this:  we  must  reap  what  we 
sow,  and  we  reap  more  than  we  sow.  This 
law  pervades  the  moral  and  spiritual  world 
no  less  than  it  does  the  physical  and  intellec- 
tual. "Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  also  reap.  For  he  that  soweth  to  his  flesh 
shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption;  he  that  sow- 
eth to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life 
everlasting. "  While  it  is  true  that  every  man 
is  constantly  reaping  in  this  life  the  fruit  of 
his  sowing  in  former  years,  yet  the  largest 
harvest  that  he  will  reap  is  that  which  awaits 
him  in  the  world  to  come. 

Men  will  be  judged  by  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body.  For  every  idle  word  that  men  shall 
speak  they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the 


THE   DOCTKINE   OF   THE   PUTUBB   LIFE.         79 

day  of  judgment;  according  as  their  words 
and  deeds  shall  be,  they  will  be  either  justified 
or  condemned.  While  it  is  repentance  and 
faith  that  are  the  conditions  of  salvation  in  the 
first  instance,  and  while  it  is  possible  for  one 
to  repent  even  on  his  deathbed  and  be  saved, 
through  the  great  mercy  of  God,  yet  it  is  life 
and  works  and  character  that  determine  sal- 
vation at  the  day  of  judgment.  Repentance 
and  faith  are  the  moral  conditions  that  make 
possible  the  attainment  of  that  life  and  char- 
acter which  are  the  conditions  of  salvation  in 
that  day  when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  and  the 
real  characters  of  all  men  will  be  revealed. 

The  uniform  teachings  of  the  Bible  are  to 
the  eftect  that  death  ends  probation  in  the  or- 
dinary sense  of  that  term.  We  read  of  no 
second  probation  after  death.  As  the  tree 
falls,  so  it  shall  lie.  He  that  is  then  unjust, 
let  him  be  unjust  still;  he  that  is  then  holy, 
let  him  be  holy  still.  Our  Lord  speaks  of  a 
sin  that  is  forgiven  neither  in  this  world  nor 
in  the  world  to  come.  Some  have  tried  to 
draw  from  this  utterance  the  inference  that 
all  sins  except  this  "sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost"  maybe  forgiven  in  the  world  to  come, 
and  that  therefore  probation  is  continued  after 
death.     But  this  inference   is  unwarranted. 


80  THE   DOCTRINES   OF  METHODISM. 

Our  Lord's  words,  rightly  interpreted,  mean 
that  while  it  is  true  of  all  sins  that  they  have 
no  forgiveness  in  the  world  to  come,  here  is  a 
sin  that  is  so  serious  and  culpable  that  it  places 
the  transgressor,  while  yet  in  this  life,  beyond 
the  possibility  of  his  ever  being  brought  to 
repentance  and  saving  faith,  and  hence  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  pardon.  The  reason 
why  any  one  becomes  a  sinner  or  continues  to 
be  a  sinner  is  always  in  himself,  and  not  in 
God.  God  will  do  nothing,  either  in  this 
world  or  the  world  to  come,  to  keep  a  sinner 
from  repenting  and  giving  up  his  sin.  But  it 
would  be  wholly  unwarrantable  to  di-aw  from 
this  fact  the  inference  that  therefore  lost  sin- 
ners can  and  will  repent  in  thjB  world  to  come. 
Paul  tells  us  that  Christ  not  only  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light,  but  that  he ' '  abol- 
ished death."  This  does  not  mean  that  when 
Christ  came  physical  death  ceased,  or  will  ever 
cease  till  the  end  of  the  world.  But  it  does 
mean  that  he  totally  transformed  the  doctrine 
of  death.  Instead  of  its  being  the  cessation 
of  conscious  life,  as  many  believed,  or  the  de- 
scent of  the  soul  into  an  "underworld,"  into 
a  shadowy,  semi-conscious,  and  unhappy  state 
of  existence,  as  others  thought — and  hence  a 
thing  to  be  feared  and  dreaded  in  either  view — 


THE    DOCTBINK    OF   THE    FUTUBB   LIFE.  81 

Christ  taught  that  to  all  who  live  rightly  in 
this  present  world  death  is  the  end  of  all  that 
can  make  existence  in  any  way  unhappy,  and 
the  beginning  of  that  state  where  nothing  can 
mar  the  highest  happiness  of  which  the  soul 
is  capable.  To  the  Christian,  to  be  absent 
from  the  body  is  to  be  present  with  the  Lord 
and  to  enjoy  uninterrupted  fellowship  with 
Him.  Many  tigurative  expressions  are  used 
to  describe  what  death  is  to  those  who  are 
found  in  Christ.  To  those  who  are  weary 
with  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  life  it  is  de- 
scribed as  "rest  for  the  weary"  and  "sleep 
in  Jesus.''  Job  says:  "I  will  wait  till  my 
change  come."  The  tiny  worm  that  spends 
its  brief  existence  within  a  few  square  yards 
of  earth,  and  feeds  on  dust  and  bark  and 
leaves,  presently  "dies"  as  to  his  present  state 
of  existence;  but  what  is  death  to  him  but  his 
translation  into  the  beautiful  insect  that  basks 
in  the  sunlight,  flies  at  will  in  the  glad  air  as 
its  home,  and  feeds  upon  the  perfume  of  the 
flowers?  To  the  soul  tabernacling  in  a  suffer- 
ing body,  who  waits  patiently  mitil  his 
"change"  comes,  death  is  that  which  trans- 
forms him  who  is  a  "worm  of  the  dust"  into 
a  glorified  spirit  which  bounds  away  into  the 
glad  freedom  of  the  sinless  and  heavenly  life. 
6 


82  THE   DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

To  Paul  death  was  simply  the  occasion  of  his 
"departure"  into  another  life,  his  emigration 
to  another  and  better  country.  If  this  doc- 
trine of  death  be  true,  then  did  Christ  bring 
to  them  "who  through  fear  of  death  had  all 
their  lifetime  been  subject  to  bondage"  the 
abolition  of  death  and  the  light  of  life  and  im- 
mortality. 

But  while  death  is  all  this  and  more  to  those 
"in  Christ,"  it  is,  nevertheless,  likewise  true 
that  to  all  who  are  found  out  of  Christ  at 
death  this  "change,"  or  "departure,"  is  one 
that  introduces  them  into  a  state  far  more  aw- 
ful than  that  of  nonexistence,  and  into  a  place 
more  to  be  dreaded  than  a  vague  and  shadowy 
imderworld  of  semi-conscious  and  burdensome 
existence.  Since  Christ  came  death  has  had 
a  new  meaning  to  the  sinner  as  well  as  to  the 
saint.  If  for  the  latter  it  is  virtually  abol- 
ished, for  the  sinner  it  is  made  the  gateway  to 
a  life  that  is  described  as  the  "second  death." 

These  are  the  truths  concerning  the  future 
life  that  Methodism  has  always  taught  and 
emphasized.  That  theology  can  alone  be  suc- 
cessful, either  in  calling  sinners  to  repentance 
or  in  comforting  saints,  which  gives  no  un- 
certain sound  in  its  teachings  concerning  the 
life  to  come. 


yni. 

"The  Doctrine  op  the  Church. 

Our  Thirteenth  Article  of  Religion  con- 
tains the  following  definition  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church:  "The  visible  Church  of  Christ 
is  a  congregation  of  faithful  men,  in  the  which 
the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached,  and  the 
sacraments  duly  administered  according  to 
Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those  things  that  of 
necessity  are  requisite  to  the  same." 

This  excellent  definition  suggests:  (1)  The 
relation  of  the  Church  to  Christ,  its  divine 
Founder,  whose ' '  ordinances "  are  its  laws.  (2) 
The  Church  is  organized  Christianity^  not  an 
aggi-egation  of  detached  and  unrelated  units, 
but  a  visible  "congregation"  or  collection  of 
men  bound  together  by  a  common  relation  to 
Christ  and  to  each  other,  and  organized  for  the 
accomplishment  of  a  definite  purpose  in  the 
world.  (3)  It  is  composed  of  "faithful  men" 
—that  is,  men  who  possess  both  faith  in 
Christ  and  fidelity  to  Christ,  to  secure  which 
type  of  character  in  its  membership  proper 
conditions  of  admission  to  the  Church  and  a 
proper  discipline  over  those  in  the  Church  must 
be  enforced.     (4)  The  first  function  of  the 

(83) 


84  THE    DOCTRINES    OF    METHODISM. 

Church  is  the  teaching  or  preaching  of  the 
word,  which  must  be  committed  mainly, 
though  not  exclusively,  to  those  especially 
charged  therewith  and  trained  therefor — that 
is,  the  Christian  ministry.  (5)  The  sacra- 
ments, baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  are  to 
be  duly  administered.  (6)  There  are  some 
things  which  "of  necessity  are  requisite"  to 
the  Church  and  its  sacraments,  and  other 
things  which  are  not  of  necessity  required — 
in  other  words,  essentials  and  nonessentials  in 
religion.  In  the  former  there  must  be  unity; 
in  the  latter  there  may  be  liberty. 

While  it  is  most  common  to  designate  the 
Church  as  the  Church  of  Christ,  it  is  none  the 
less  appropriately  called  the  Church  of  God 
and  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  the 
Church  of  the  Triune  God.  It  is  first  of  all 
called  "the  church  of  God"  (Acts  xx.  28) 
or  the  "household  of  God"  (Eph.  ii.  19). 
As  such  it  has  existed  from  the  beginning, 
and  is,  in  a  sense,  one  in  all  ages.  From  the 
beginning  of  time  there  have  always  been 
true  believers  in  God,  and  these  have  consti- 
tuted the  true  Church. 

The  Church  is  most  frequently  and  appro- 
priately designated  as  the  Church  of  Christ. 
because  it  is  founded  upon  his  divine-human 


THE    DOCTRINK    OK    THK    CHURCH.  85 

person  and  work,  upon  his  life  and  teaching, 
upon  his  atoning  death  and  resurrection,  upon 
his  session  at  the  right-hand  of  the  Father, 
and  his  intercession  for  the  saints.  The  new 
order  of  things  which  Christ  came  to. estab- 
lish, he  usually  designates  as  his  kingdom, 
the  "kingdom  of  God,"  or  the  "kingdom  of 
heaven."  Only  twice  does  he  use  the  word 
"Church"  {ekklesia)^  the  one  case  referring 
to  a  local  assembly  of  Christian  people  (Matt, 
xviii.  17),  and  the  other  being  the  classic  pas- 
sage in  which  he  refers  to  the  visible  organi- 
zation of  Christian  believers  for  all  time,  and 
announces  the  faith,  the  foundation,  and  the 
perpetuity  of  the  Church :  ' '  He  saith  unto  them 
[his  disciples].  But  whom  say  ye  that  I  am? 
And  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said.  Thou 
art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God. 
And  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him.  Bless- 
ed art  thou,  Simon  Bar-jona:  for  flesh  and 
blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven.  And  I  say  also 
unto  thee,  That  thou  art  l*eter,  and  upon  this 
rock  I  will  build  my  church;  and  the  gates  of 
hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it."  (Matt.  xvi. 
15-18.)  When  Christ  said  to  Peter,  "Upon 
this  rock  I  will  build  my  church,"  he  prob- 
ably referred  to  St.  Peter's  confession,  "Thou 


86  THE    DOCTRINJBS    OK    MKTHOBISM, 

art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God;" 
the  one  great  truth  contained  in  which — viz. , 
the  divinity  of  Christ — is  the  true  rock  of 
faith  upon  which  the  Church  is  built.  Some 
think  that  Christ  referred  to  himself  as  "this 
rock;"  others,  that  he  referred  to  St.  Peter 
as  a  representative  of  the  apostles,  whose  work 
and  inspired  teachings  were,  in  an  important 
sense,  to  constitute  the  foundation  of  the 
Church. 

The  Church,  again,  is  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  The  beginning  of  the  Christian 
Church  as  a  visible  organization  took  place  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost.  For  this  beginning 
Christ's  work  is  shown  by  the  Gospel  records 
to  have  been  preparatory.  Not  until  our 
Lord's  revelation  concerning  the  nature  of  his 
spiritual  kingdom  was  complete,  and  not  un- 
til his  atoning  death  and  resurrection  were 
become  historical  facts,  had  the  time  come  for 
the  historical  beginning  and  foundation  of 
the  Church.  The  Church  is  the  organ  which 
the  Spirit  uses  for  the  accomplishment  of  his 
work  in  the  world.  The  Spirit  can  and  does 
work  under  any  outward  form  of  Chm'ch 
government.  That  is  the  truest  Church  that 
can  furnish,  in  the  number  of  souls  saved 
through  its  agency,  the  most  indubitable  and 


THK    DOCTKINK    OF    THK    CHURCH.  87 

abiding  evidence  of  possessing  this  supreme 
credential:  the  presence  and  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

The  visible  Church,  in  the  widest  sense  of 
that  term,  includes  all  Churches  and  all  mem- 
bers in  all  Churches  who  acknowledge  Jesus 
Christ  as  their  Head  and  trust  in  him  and  him 
alone  for  salvation.  These  constitute  but  one 
spiritual  body,  as  viewed  by  Christ  the  Head. 
The  true  scriptural  unity  is  not  so  much  one 
of  outward  form  as  of  inward  life;  it  is  a  uni- 
ty based  on  a  true  confession  of  faith  in  one 
God,  who  is  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit.  It 
is  entirely  consistent  with  this  idea  of  scrip- 
tural unity  that  there  should  be  many  reli- 
gious denominations  within  the  Church  of 
Christ. 

There  is  a  distinction  to  be  made  between 
the  outward  and  visible  Chm:ch,  which  is  com- 
posed of  all  professing  Christians,  and  the 
true  spiritual  and  invisible  Church,  which  is 
composed  only  of  real  and  true  Christians. 
While  the  visible  Church  will  always  contain 
in  its  membership  some  who  are  not  in  th^ 
invisible  and  spiritual  kingdom  of  Christ,  yet 
an  effort  should  be  made  to  make  the  two  cor- 
respond as  nearly  as  possible.  The  Church 
of  the  New  Testament  is  composed  of  the 


88  TICK   l>OCTRINKS   OF  METHODISM. 

saved:  "  The  Lord  added  to  them  day  by  day 
those  that  were  being  saved."  (Acts  ii.  47.) 
Before  any  one  is  admitted  to  full  member- 
ship in  the  Chm-ch,  he  should  give  evidence 
not  only  of  his  sincere  "desire  to  flee  the 
wrath  to  come  and  to  be  saved  from  his  sins," 
but  also  of  "the  genuineness  of  his  faith;"  in 
other  words,  he  should  give  credible  evidence 
of  having  exercised  such  repentance  and  faith 
as  are  laid  down  in  the  New  Testament  as  the 
conditions  of  salvation.  This  will  secure,  ap- 
proximately at  least,  a  membership  of  truly  con- 
verted people.  If  these  scriptural  conditions 
of  salvation  be  required  as  the  conditions  of 
admission  to  the  Church,  and  discipline  be 
duly  enforced,  then  will  the  visible  Church 
be  made  as  pure  and  spiritual  as  is  possible 
here  on  earth,  and  then  only  will  the  Church 
be  a  "congregation  of  faithful  men." 

The  Christian  ministry  is  a  divine  vocation 
in  that  only  those  may  enter  it  who  are  di- 
vinely called  thereto.  We  believe  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  chooses  those  whom  he  would 
have  to  preach,  and  indicates  his  choice  of 
them  by  making  an  inward  impression  upon 
their  minds  as  to  their  duty  in  this  regard. 
But  the  Church  also  must  sit  in  judgment  on 
those  who  feel  called  to  preach,  and  thus  "try 


THK   DOCTKIXE   OF   THE  CHURCH.  89 

the  spirits  to  see  whether  they  be  of  God  oi- 
uot."  The  Christian  ministry,  as  its  name 
indicates,  is  first  of  all  an  office  of  service. 
Ministers  are  servants  of  Christ  and  of  the 
Chuich.  The  most  important  function  of  the 
ministry  is  to  preach  the  word.  The  salvation 
of  sinners  and  the  edification  of  believers  de- 
pend upon  their  fidelity  to  this  part  of  their 
work.  If  the  "pure  word  of  God"  is  to  be 
preached,  the  ministry  must  be  educated  in  a 
right  understanding  and  interpretation  of  the 
Bible;  otherwise  false  and  fanatical  doctrines 
may  be  drawn  from  the  word  of  God  by  mis- 
interpretation and  unsound  exegesis. 

Methodism  recognizes  but  two  institutions 
of  the  Church  as  sacraments:  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper.  The  Church  retains  the  prim- 
itive and  apostolic  custom  of  baptizing  in- 
fants. While  it  is  the  rule  that  the  childi-en 
only  of  Christian  parents  (or  guardians)  are 
presented  for  baptism,  yet  the  Church  teaches 
that  the  right  of  a  child  to  Christian  baptism 
gi'ows  out  of  his  own  relation  to  Christ,  rath- 
er than  that  of  his  parent  or  guardian.  As 
to  the  mode  of  baptism,  Methodism  favors 
poiu-ing  or  sprinkling  as  more  simple  and 
symbolic  of  the  "washing  of  regeneration," 
but  allows  perfect  liberty  on  the  part  of  adult 


90  THE   DOOTRIKKS    OF   METHODISM. 

applicants  for  Church  membership  to  choose 
either  of  these  modes  or  immersion.  The 
Lord's  Supper  is  regarded  as  a  memorial  serv- 
ice and  a  means  of  grace  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary sanctity.  It  is  the  privilege  and  duty  of 
every  member  of  the  Church  to  partake  regu- 
larly of  this  sacrament  as  opportunity  offers. 

If  our  doctrine  of  the  Church  be  true,  every 
branch  of  the  Christian  Church  is  free  to  de- 
termine its  own  polity  or  form  of  govern- 
ment.    The  value  of  each  can  be  tested  only 
by  time  and  experience.     The  polity  of  Meth- 
odism has  been  on  trial  for  about  a  century 
and  a  half;  and  that  of  Episcopal  Methodism 
for  a  little  over  a  century,  during  which  time 
it  has  been  constantly  undergoing  modifica- 
tions and  adaptations  to  new  conditions  as  its 
growth  and  ever- widening  mission  seemed  to 
demand.     Judged  by  its  history  in  the  past 
and  its  efficiency  and  rapid  gi-owth  at  the 
present  time,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  branch 
of  the  Christian  Church,  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  has  ever  devised  a  more 
scriptural  and  efficient  form  of  government 
than  that  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Chm-ch, 
South.    It  behooves  every  student  of  Christian 
doctrines  to  give  it  a  careful  examination. 


PART  SECOND. 


THE  POLITY 

OF  THE 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 
SOUTH. 


By  Rev.  James  Atkins,  D.D., 
Sunday  School  Editor. 


(91) 


PREFACE. 

In  entitling  the  following  pages  "The  Polity 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,"  it 
is  not  meant  that  they  contain  anything  like  a 
full  discussion  of  our  economy.  Such  a  pres- 
entation would  involve  a  full  exhibit  of  the  ra- 
tionale of  our  Discipline,  and  even  more. 

The  object  has  been  to  set  forth  the  more 
prominent  features  of  our  Church  organization 
and  plan  of  working,  and  to  call  the  attention  of 
our  teachers  to  certain  vital  peculiarities  of  our 
system,  upon  which  its  continued  and  enlarged 
usefulness  depends.  If  this  much  shall  be  ac- 
complished by  this  brief  survey,  the  end  aimed 

at  will  have  been  reached. 

James  Atkins. 

(92) 


I. 

The  General  Rules. 

The  Church  of  Christ  is  an  aristocracy  of 
virtue.  It  is  the  only  one  which  has  serious- 
ly and  successfully  battled  for  a  place  among 
men.  Truly  it  is  a  kingdom  of  grace,  but  the 
only  end  of  that  grace  is  holiness  of  character 
and  life.  Tender  and  all-giving  as  Jesus  was 
in  his  attitude  toward  penitent  men,  nothing 
can  exceed  his  burning  candor  in  laying  down 
the  conditions  of  discipleship.  These  condi- 
tions would  be  indeed  harsh  if  the  power  of 
execution  were  not  furnished  from  above. 
But  by  the  divine  reenforcement  all  things 
are  possible,  and  most  moral  achievements 
easy,  to  men  who  believe.  A  life  of  self-de- 
nial is  the  natural  order  for  one  in  whom  the 
supreme  act  and  purpose  of  self-abnegation 
have  gone  before,  and  a  life  of  heroic  moral 
doings  is  easy  to  a  man  who  is  moved  upon  by 
the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  moral  code  of  Methodism  is  contained 
in  what  are  called  the  General  Rules.  These 
rules  have  thrown  their  gracious,  helpful  do- 
minion over  many  millions  who  in  these  more 
than  one  hundred  and  fiftv  years  of  our  his- 

(9.3) 


94  OTTR   POLITY. 

tory  have  gone  from  the  self-denials  and  la- 
bors of  this  life  into  the  rewards  of  another. 
There  are  now  about  seven  millions  within 
the  Methodist  fold  who  are  confessedly  walk- 
ing by  the  same  rules. 

The  only  condition  required  of  those  who 
seek  membership  in  our  Church  is  "a  desire  to 
flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  be  saved 
from  their  sins." 

This  surely  is  broad  enough,  and  yet  when 
interpreted  in  the  light  of  the  Rules  it  leaves 
nothing  to  be  added.  It  certainly  excludes  all 
who  have  a  desire  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come  and  to  be  saved  in  their  sins. 

Those  who  have  this  desire  to  be  saved 
from  wrath  and  sin  will,  if  the  desire  be  gen- 
uine, give  evidence  of  it  in  three  ways: 

First^  iy  doing  no  harm — that  is,  avoiding 
evil  of  every  hind. 

Secondly,  hy  doing  good  to  hoth  the  hodies 
amd  soids  of  men. 

Thirdly,  hy  attending  upon  the  ordinances 
of  God. 

The  Things  Forbidden.  . 

Taking  the  name  of  God  in  vain. 

This  includes: 

(1)  Profane  swearing  and  all  forms  of  curs- 


THE    GENERAL   RULES.  95 

ing,  especially  such  as  involve  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  Deity.  •  There  is  much  sinful 
swearing  which  does  not  contain  the  name  of 
God,  but  implies  it.  He  who  curses  his  fel- 
low-man, with  or  without  the  mention  of 
God's  name,  assumes  a  place  of  judgment 
which  belongs  to  God  only. 

(2)  Perjury,  or  intentionally  false  swear- 
ing, in  which  God  is  called  to  witness  to 
the  truth  of  what  is  false.  This  indicates 
the  utmost  baseness  of  character,  and  the 
penalties  of  the  civil  law  against  it  are  justly 
severe. 

(3)  All  sacrilegious  and  other  vain  or  light 
uses  of  the  name  of  God, 

(4)  All  idle  swearing,  which  long  ago 
Chaucer  pronounced  a  "crudeness,"  and 
which  is  now,  and  must  ever  remain  at  the 
least,  an  act  of  incivility,  and  lead  the  way  to 
more  serious  and  more  hurtful  forms  of  the 
oflfense. 

The  name  of  God  stands  for  his  character, 
and  therefore  the  breaking  of  the  third  com- 
mandment is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  and 
debasing  of  sins. 

Profaning  the  day  of  the  Lord,  elthei-  hy 
doing  ordinary  work  therein.,  <yr  hy  buying  or 
selling. 


96  OUR   POLITY. 

The  three  great  doctrines  taught  by  the 
Sabbath  as  we  now  have  it  are: 

(1)  That  God  is  the  Creator  of  all  things; 

(2)  that  Christ  is  risen  from  the  dead;  and 

(3)  that  all  our  time  belongs  to  God. 

"The  Sabbath,  in  its  spiritual  aspect  and 
meaning,  is  one  of  the  strongest  defenses  of 
the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  divin- 
ity of  the  religion  which  it  reveals.  It  is 
man's  day  and  God's  day;  more  thoroughly 
man's  day  because  completely  God's  day. 
It  is  their  united  time,  time  of  fellowship, 
hour  of  communion,  opportunity  for  deeper 
reading,  larger  prayer,  and  diviner  consecra- 
tion."   (Joseph  Parker.) 

Christianity  has  no  more  important  institu- 
tion than  the  Holy  Sabbath.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  overestimate  the  value  of  the  day 
both  to  individuals  and  to  communities.  The 
demand  for  it  is  laid  in  the  physical  constitu- 
tion of  man  and  the  laboring  animals.  Not 
only  was  the  Sabbath  made  for  man,  but  man 
was  made  with  reference  to  a  Sabbath,  so  that 
in  this  regard,  as  well  as  in  other  things,  it  is 
to  the  best  interests  of  man  in  his  present 
state  to  obey  God's  commands.  Such  a  rest 
18  necessary  to  the  highest  sanity  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  community,  and  hence  it  is 


THE    GENERAL   KULBS.  97 

that  the  Sabbath  is  one  of  the  greatest  safe- 
guards of  personal  and  national  life.  It 
therefore  becomes  the  duty  not  only  of  every 
true  religionist  and  philanthropist,  but  of 
every  true  patriot,  to  advance  by  all  means  a  . 
proper  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  day. 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  the  divine  institu- 
tion of  the  Sabbath  it  was  made  a  day  of 
rest,  not  of  recreation.  One  of  the  worst 
evils  of  modern  times  is  the  habit  of  using 
the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  recreation,  and  even 
of  dissipation.  It  behooves  all  the  teaching 
agencies  of  Christendom  to  set  themselves 
against  this  pernicious  drift  by  teaching  in 
the  home,  the  day  school,  the  Sunday  school, 
and  the  church  how  rightly  to  use  the  holy 
Sabbath. 

Jesus  said  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man,  not  man  for  the  Sabbath;  and  in  say- 
ing this  he  was  breaking  from  off  the  Sab- 
bath those  bm-densome  conditions  which  the 
traditions  of  the  Jews  had  placed  upon  it. 
The  divine  Sabbath  had  been  so  obscured  by 
them  as  to  be  wholly  lost  sight  of.  The  re- 
ligious teachers  who  were  objecting  to  Christ's 
use  of  the  Sabbath  for  works  of  mercy  were 
teaching  the  people  that  a  man  should  not  wear 
shoes  with  tacks  in  them  on  the  Sabbath, 
Y 


98  OtTK   POLITY. 

lest  the  grass  should  be  thereby  crushed, 
and  thus  amount  to  a  sort  of  mowing;  and 
that  a  tailor  should  not  place  a  needle  in 
his  coat  late  in  the  day  before  the  Sabbath, 
,  lest  he  should  forget  and  leave  it  there,  and 
thus  bear  a  burden  on  the  Sabbath  day. 
These  are  but  samples  of  much  foolishness 
which  was  in  vogue  in  that  day,  and  which 
perverted  God's  day  so  as  to  make  it  a  burden 
instead  of  a  blessing.  Now  Christ,  instead  of 
abrogating  the  Sabbath  or  implying  that  it 
was  to  be  used  for  recreation,  was  but  re- 
storing it  to  its  original  place  as  a  day  of  rest 
and  religious  improvement. 

It  seems  that  there  were  in  the  days  of 
Isaiah  some  who  took  the  recreation  view  of 
the  Sabbath,  and  the  words  of  the  greatest  of 
the  old  prophets  are  sufficient  to  fully  cover 
the  case  now.  God,  speaking  through  him, 
says:  "If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the 
sabbath,  from  doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy 
day;  and  call  the  sabbath  a  delight,  the  holy  of 
the  Lord,  honorable;  and  shalt  honor  him,  not 
doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  finding  thine  own 
pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own  words:  then 
shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  the  Lord;  and  I 
will  cause  thee  to  ride  upon  the  high  places  of 
the  earth,  and  feed  thee  with  the  heritage  of 


THE    GENERAL   RULES.  99 

Jacob  thy  father:  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord 
hath  spoken  it."     (Isa.  Iviii.  13,  14.) 

Let  it  be  noted  that  the  command  to  work 
on  the  other  six  days  is  as  explicit  and  as  bind- 
ing as  that  which  requires  us  to  rest  on  the 
seventh. 

Drunk&MieHs^  or  <k%nhmg  splrUuaas  liqucyrs 
unless  in  cases  of  necessity.  The  Methodists 
from  the  beginning  have  been  a  temperance 
people,  and  they  are  still  such,  not  in  theory 
only  but  in  practice.  The  American  Metho- 
dists constitute,  perhaps,  the  strongest  single 
phalanx  in  the  nation  against  this  mammoth 
evil.  But  there  needs  to  be  the  most  thor- 
ough and  constant  teaching  on  this  subject,  in 
order  that  no  generation  of  our  young  people 
shall  be  liable  to  repeat  the  folly  and  sin  of 
drinking  for  lack  of  information.  There  is 
no  sphere  in  which  it  is  truer  that  eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty. 

Intemperance  is  the  costliest  and  most  de- 
structive sin  of  mankind.  It  is  this  in  itself, 
and  in  addition  it  leads  in  very  many  cases  to 
every  other  form  of  sin.  It  is  the  mother  of 
crimes.  Intoxicants,  even  when  used  under 
the  rule  in  "cases  of  necessity,"  ought  to  be 
used  with  the  utmost  caution  and  under  the 
restraints  of  an  enlightened  conscience.     The 


100  OUB   POLITY. 

story  of  the  man  who  was  bitten  by  a  snake 
and  was  given  whisky  for  it,  though  not  new, 
is  exact  and  apt.  The  bite  got  well,  and  in 
due  time  the  snake  died,  but  twenty  years 
later  the  man  was  still  taking  the  medicine. 

All  in  all,  total  abstinence  is  the  best  rule, 
because  the  only  one  that  is  absolutely  safe. 

(a)  Fighting^  quarreling^  hrmoUng;  (b) 
Irother  going  to  law  with  Irother;  (c)  return^ 
ing  evil  for  evil^  or  railing  for  railing;  (d) 
the  using  many  vjords  in  huying  or  selling. 

(a)  These  things  are  but  little  less  than 
barbarous,  and  are  wholly  out  of  harmony  with 
that  spirit  of  fraternity  which  is  ever  a  mark 
of  the  truly  regenerate  man. 

(h)  As  a  rule,  litigation  even  for  righteous 
claims  is  harmful  to  one's  relations  and  influ- 
ence. In  most  cases  it  is  better  both  morally 
and  financially  to  pay  a  lawyer  to  keep  you 
out  of  the  courts  than  to  take  you  through 
them. 

(c)  "Evil  for  evil,  or  railing  for  railing," 
embodies  the  spirit  of  the  old  order  of  "an 
eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  which 
Christ  distinctly  condemned. 

(d)  "Let  your  communication  be,  Yea, 
yea;  Nay,  nay:  for  whatsoever  is  more  than 
these  cometh  of  evil."    Talk  straight  to  the 


XHB    GENEEAL    RULES. 


101 


point,  and  when  you  have  done  turn  to  some- 
thing else. 

The  buying  or  selling  goods  that  have  not 

paid  the  duty. 

The  days  in  which  these  rules  originated 
were  days  of  much  smuggling.  The  govern- 
ment was  being  constantly  defrauded  by  ship- 
pers and  merchants  who  in  various  ways  were 
avoiding  the  payment  of  the  lawful  duties. 
This  was  simply  stealing  from  the  govern- 
ment, and  those  who  knowingly  took  part  in 
the  benefits  were  partners  with  the  thieves. 
Of  course  no  truly  Christian  man  could  do 
such  a  thing.  The  principle  involved  still 
abides. 

The  tariff  may  be  right  or  it  may  be  wrong; 
but  in  either  event  the  man  who  knowingly 
deals  in  goods  which  have  not  paid  it  is  cer- 
tainly wrong. 

There  is  a  very  loose  notion  abroad  as  to 
the  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  individual  to 
deal  fairly  and  justly  with  the  government 
and  with  Corporations.  An  honesty  which 
does  not  deport  itself  with  exact  righteous- 
ness in  relation  to  both  is  not  worthy  of  the 


name. 


The  giving  or  taking  things  on  usury,  i.  d., 
unlawful  interest. 


102  OUR  POLITY. 

The  word  "usury"  is  from  the  Latin  word 
tisus^  which  in  this  connection  means  "so 
much  for  the  use  of  "—that  is,  any  interest 
whatever.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  the  word 
is  used  in  the  Bible.  It  retained  this  sense 
until  within  the  last  three  centuries.  The 
Jews  were  forbidden  by  the  law  to  take  any 
interest  from  each  other  for  the  use  of  money 
or  other  commodities.  Hence  under  their 
law  any  interest  was  usury.  Usury  now 
means  unlawful  interest — that  is,  interest  at 
a  higher  rate  than  that  provided  for  in  the 
law  of  the  State  within  which  the  business  is 
transacted.  The  terms  "giving"  and  "tak- 
ing" seem  to  include  him  who  borrows  at  un- 
lawful interest  as  well  as  him  who  lends.  It 
must,  nevertheless,  be  allowed  that  the  two 
cases  are  quite  different  as  to  the  moral  ele- 
ment involved. 

TJncharitahle  or  unprofitable  conversation^ 
particularly  speaking  evil  of  magistrates  or  of 
ministers. 

This  is  an  exceedingly  important  rule.  The 
power  of  speech  is  one  of  the  greatest  and 
most  dangerous  dignities  conferred  upon 
man.  "Out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart 
the  mouth  speaketh."  Purity  of  speech  is 
one  of  the  highest  signs  of  a  noble  and  re- 


THE    GENBBAL   BULKS. 


103 


fined  nature.  Coarseness  dnd  baseness  of 
speech  can  come  from  but  one  source.  Men 
do  not  often  make  mistakes  in  their  esti- 
mate of  it.  The  crudest  men  know  that  low- 
ness  of  speech  is  unbecoming  the  children  of 

God. 

Uncharitable  speech  indicates  a  harsh  and  • 
uncharitable  mood,  if  not  a  fixed  disposition. 
It  always  inflicts  two  injuries,  one  upon  the 
victim  of  it  and  the  other  upon  the  author. 
Charity  even  toward  one's  enemies  is  one  of 
the  strongest  pledges  of  trueness  toward  one's 
friends.     Uncharitable  talk  when  once  begun 
knows  no  limits.     It  is  like  a  fire  in  a  field, 
which  does  not  burn  according  to  metes  and 
bounds,  but  by  its  own  heat  and  the  material  it 
finds  in  all  directions  to  feed  upon. 

The  unprofitable  conversation  referred  to  in 
the  rule  means  light  and  trashy  talk,  such  as 
is  common  among  gossips  and  gabblers,  and  to 
which  young  people  are  especially  liable  if 
not  rightly  guarded  against  it.  The  unfur- 
nished mind  finds  it  much  easier  to  prate  about 
things  of  no  value  than  to  prepare  for  season- 
able and  profitable  talk.  But  unprofitable 
conversation  also  includes  more  serious  and 
thoughtful  talk  which  lacks  a  pure  and 
helpful  purpose.    This  is  even   more  to  be 


104  OUR    POLITY. 

avoided  than  idle  and  meaningless  conversa- 
tion. 

Speaking  evil  of  rulers  and  ministers  is  a 
very  common  fault.  It  seems  to  be  assumed 
by  many  that  any  exaltation  in  office  implies 
the  right  of  the  people  to  make  a  sort  of  tar- 
get of  the  man  thus  exalted.  Nothing  is  far- 
ther from  the  truth.  Such  men  deserve  the 
sympathy  and  the  support  of  those  whom 
they  represent  in  so  far  as  these  can  be  con- 
scientiously given.  All  faithful  men  occupy- 
ing places  of  trust  and  power  realize  that  the 
higher  they  go  as  men  reckon  height,  the 
heavier  their  responsibilities  become  and  the 
more  burdensome  their  duties.  Men,  wheth- 
er magistrates  or  ministers,  who  serve  the 
people  faithfully  have  a  right  to  the  moral 
support  of  the  public.  To  discount  this  by 
evil-speaking  is  a  wrong  to  the  men  and  often- 
times a  crime  against  the  civil  or  religious  in- 
terests which  such  men  are  set  to  serve. 

If  rulers  or  ministers  are  either  incompe- 
tent [or  unfaithful,  let  a  change  be  made  in 
a  constitutional  way.  Evil-speaking  corrects 
nothing. 

In  general,  the  habit  of  reckless  criticism 
within  the  household  needs  to  be  most  careful- 
ly guarded  against.     Much  infidelity  is  bred 


THB    GBNBRAl,   BULKS. 


105 


in  children  by  indiscriminate  and  indiscreet 
criticism  of  the  preacher  and  the  preaching. 
Whoever  destroys  in  himself  or  another  a 
genuine  reverence  for  superiors  in  years,  in 
attainments,  in  position  rightly  used,  is  fool- 
ishly cutting  from  above  him  the  rounds  of 
the  ladder  by  which  he  would  rise  to  higher 
things.  A  true  reverence,  especially  in  young 
people,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
charming  of  virtues,  and  is  the  spring  of  un- 
numbered blessings  to  society.  It  is  the  very 
chivalry  of  man's  moral  nature,  and  adorns 
every  stage  of  life  as  nothing  else  can  do. 

Doing  to  otliers  as  we  would  not  they  should 
do  unto  us. 

This  is  merely  the  negative  statement  of 
the  golden  rule,  and  includes  all  forms  of  in- 
jury to  our  fellow-men. 

Doing  what  we  l^/nmo  is  not  for  the  glory  of 

God:  a«, 

The  putting  on  of  gold  and  costly  appa/rel. 

A  display  of  extravagant  and  vainglorious 
finery  is  always  unbecoming  in  the  children 
of  God.  This  is  no  doubt  the  spirit  aimed  at 
in  this  rule.  Any  such  interpretation  of  it  as 
would  lead  the  Church  to  regulate  the  per- 
sonal habits  of  its  members  in  regard  to  their 
attire  has  long  since  ceased.     It  is,  neverthe- 


106  (U  Tl    POLITY. 

less,  well  for  all  to  have  due  regard  to  situa- 
tion and  ability  in  their  dressing.  The  use  of 
jewelry  or  fine  clothing  to  the  exclusion  of  a 
liberal  part  in  the  benevolent  movements  of 
the  Church  is  wrong  beyond  question,  and 
shows  a  low  and  selfish  disregard  of  the 
claims  of  others  for  the  necessities  of  life  and 
for  mental  and  spiritual  enlightenment.  It 
indicates  a  spirit  which  is  far  from  the  spirit 
of  Christ.  "If  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his." 

The  talcing  such  diversions  as  ca/nnot  he  used 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

The  language  of  this  rule  clearly  implies 
that  there  are  diversions  which  may  be  taken 
without  injury.  Diversions  which  are  not  in 
themselves  harmful  to  health  or  character, 
when  not  used  to  excess  so  as  to  become  a 
waste  of  time  or  a  dissipation,  may  be  used 
with  profit. 

What  those  diversions  are  is  left  to  the 
intelligence  and  conscience  of  the  individual 
believer,  except  as  to  those  which  have  been 
commonly  condemned  by  men  as  evil,  or  have 
been  pronounced  against  by  the  authorities  of 
our  Church .  These  prohibited  amusements  are 
dancing.,  card-playing.^  theater-going.,  attend- 
a/nce  upon  race  courses^  circu^e.^,  and  the  like. 


THE    GKNEBAL   RirLES.  107 

Chief  among  these  offenses  is  the  modern 
dance.  The  bishops,  in  their  address  to  the 
General  Conference  of  1874,  speak  on  the 
point  as  follows:  "An  explicit  utterance  was 
given  by  order  of  the  last  General  Confer- 
ence, in  our  pastoral  address,  on  'Worldly 
Amusements.'  We  now  repeat  that  utter- 
ance. We  abate  none  of  its  teachings  with 
respect  either  to  manifest  inconsistency  of 
such  indulgences  with  the  spirit  and  profession 
of  the  gospel,  or  the  perils  which  they  bring 
to  the  souls  of  men.  .  .  .  Among  these 
indulgences  ...  is  the  modern  dance, 
both  in  its  private  and  public  exhibition,  as 
utterly  opposed  to  the  genius  of  Christianity 
as  taught  by  us." 

The  General  Conference  of  1890  appointed 
a  special  committee  of  fifteen  to  prepare  an 
address  on  the  spiritual  state  of  the  Church. 
The  report  of  this  committee  was  adopted  by 
the  General  Conference  and  published  in  the 
Discipline  of  that  year.  In  that  report  is 
found  the  following  language: 

"In  this  same  condemnation,  as  equally 
contrary  to  the  Scriptures,  which  declare  that 
'the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  against 
God,'  to  our  General  Rules,  and  to  the  vows 
which  our  members  have  voluntarily  assumed. 


108  OUR   POLITY. 

this  General  Conference  would  include  card- 
playing,  theater-going,  attendance  upon  race 
courses,  circuses,  and  the  like.  These  offenses 
are  likewise  jastifiable  grounds  of  discipline." 

The  General  Conference,  having  adopted 
this  report,  took  the  following  action: 

''^  Resolved^  That  inasmuch  as  the  deliver- 
ances of  our  bishops,  as  contained  in  their 
quadrennial  addresses  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence from  time  to  time,  and  as  quoted  at 
length  by  the  Special  Committee  of  Fifteen, 
have  declared  dancing,  theater-going,  card- 
playing,  and  the  like  worldly  indulgences,  to 
be  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and 
violative  of  the  General  Rules  and  moral  dis- 
cipline of  our  Church,  as  also  of  the  vows 
of  our  Church  members;  we  therefore  heart- 
ily indorse  the  aforesaid  deliverances  as  con- 
taining the  just  and  correct  interpretation  of 
the  law  in  the  premises,  and  as  such  this 
General  Conference  accepts  the  same  as  hav- 
ing equal  force  and  authority  as  if  contained 
in  the  body  of  the  Discipline."  (1[497,  Dis- 
cipline of  1890.) 

These  utterances  and  acts  put  the  position 
of  our  Church  on  these  diversions  beyond 
question.  In  this  regard  the  Methodist 
Church  articulates  and  authoritativelv  states 


THE    GENEEAL   BULES.  109 

what  all  the  leading  Churches  hold.  Espe- 
cially is  this  true  of  the  modern  dance,  which, 
though  practiced  by  many  Church  members 
in  the  various  denominations  and  is  even  con- 
nived at  by  some  communions,  is  approved 
by  no  Church  in  Christendom,  and  is  severe- 
ly condemned  by  most. 

A  consensus  of  religious  opinion  running 
through  many  ages  of  trial  and  embracing 
many  peoples  touching  the  injurious  nature  of 
any  practice  is  itself  an  almost  unanswerable 
argument  against  such  practice.  But  a  care- 
ful examination  into  the  data  upon  which  the 
Church  has  made  up  and  holds  its  estimate  of 
the  dance  will  furnish  ample  proofs  to  every 
age  that  the  practice  is  thoroughly  carnal, 
wars  against  spiritual  interests,  and  brings 
much  detriment  to  the  spiritual  life  of  many 
who  engage  in  it. 

But  let  it  be  noted  that  a  wise  administra- 
tion of  discipline  in  regard  to  these  things 
will  never  be  harsh.  It  is  sometimes  very 
difficult  for  young  persons  to  see  in  these  di- 
versions what  the  Church  sees.  While  all 
sane  young  persons  can  see  that  a  vow  delib- 
erately made  and  deliberately  and  habitually 
broken  involves  sin,  it  is  still  best  to  reen- 
force  them  with  such  knowledge  of  the  in- 


110  OUB   POLITY. 

herent  or  incidental  evil  of  these  practices  as 
will  make  them  both  clear  and  strong  in  their 
own  views  against  them.  A  wise  discipline 
will,  therefore,  always  be  by  instruction,  by 
patience,  and  in  the  main  by  persuasion. 

The  singing  those  songs,  or  reading  those 
books,  which  do  not  tend  to  the  knowledge  or 
love  of  God. 

The  songs  and  books  of  a  people  are  the 
mightiest  factors  in  determining  of  what  char- 
acter a  people  shall  be.  Singing  and  reading 
are,  therefore,  suitable  subjects  for  advisory 
rules  on  the  part  of  the  Church  which  would 
bring  its  members  to  the  highest  and  best. 
This  rule  does  not  mean  that  we  are  to  sing 
no  songs  or  read  no  books  except  such  as  are 
distinctly  religious  in  character,  but  rather 
that  we  shall  avoid  all  such  as  are  pernicious 
or  empty  of  substantial  good.  In  Mr.  Wes- 
ley's time  there  was  very  little  that  was 
wholesome  and  edifying  in  the  literature  of 
the  day,  and  much  that  was  bad,  and  he  did  a 
truly  great  work  in  expimging,  recasting, 
and  making  books  for  his  people  to  read. 
There  is  now  no  more  important  interest  for 
parents  and  religious  teachers  to  look  after. 
Many  a  young  person  has  been  ruined  by 
making  a  companion  of  one  bad  book. 


THK    GENERAL  BULBS.  HI 

Of. 


Softnens  or  needless  self-indulgenct 
There  is  no  room  for  a  lazy  man  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.    A  self-indulgent  and  ease- 
seeking  person  cannot  fairly  claim  to  be  a 
follower  of  our  Lord,  who  himself  came  not 
to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,  and  who 
went  about  doing  good.    The  servant  is  not 
above  his  Lord.     It  is  every  man's  duty  to  be 
diligent,  not  only  in  spiritual  concerns  but 
also    in    temporal    affairs.      No   amount  of 
wealth  or  opportunity  for  ease  can  free  a  man 
from  the  obligation  to  pursue  with  alacrity 
some  chosen  field  of  service. 
Laying  iip  treasure  upon  ea/rth. 
Mr.  Wesley  in  one  of  his  sermons  gives 
three  great  mottoes  on  this  subject:  (1)  Make 
all  you  can.     (2)  Save  all  you  can.     (3)  Give 
all  you  can.     Make  all  you  can  consistently 
with  perfect  integrity  and  the  rights  of  oth- 
ers.    Save  all  you  can— that  is,  waste  noth- 
ing.   Give  all  you  can  consistently  with  yom- 
plain  obUgations.     Mr.  Wesley  himself  made 
much,  wasted  nothing,  gave  everything.    Had 
he  been  a  man  of  family,  he  probably  could 
not  have  made  so  much,  wasted  so  little,  or 
given  all.      Nevertheless,    he   preached  the 
right  doctrine  and  gave  the  right  example 
concerning  earthly  treasures.     Some  wag  has 


112  OUB   POLITY. 

said  pithily  at  least  that  the  maxim  which 
governs  the  business  world  of  to-day  is: 
"Make  all  you  can,  and  can  all  you  make." 
Perhaps  no  desire  is  more  universal  and  more 
hurtful  to  spiritual  life  than  the  desire  to  lay 
up  treasure  upon  earth.  The  Church  is  by 
no  means  free  from  it,  and  there  is  much 
need  of  sound  teaching  in  order  that  our  peo- 
ple may  be  saved  from  an  inordinate  love  of 
the  world. 

Borrowing  without  a  prohahility  of  'pouying^ 
or  taking  up  goods  without  a  prohahility  of 
paying  for  them. 

This  is  virtually  obtaining  money  or  goods 
under  false  pretenses,  which  is  a  misdemean- 
or under  the  laws  of  many,  perhaps  most,  of 
the  States.  Thoroughgoing  honesty  is  one  of 
the  most  valuable  fruits  of  the  gospel,  and  is 
one  of  the  most  charming  traits  in  Chm-ch 
members  as  they  are  looked  upon  by  the  eyes 
of  the  world.  There  are  honest  pagans; 
shall  any  Christian  be  less? 

The  next  section  of  the  Rules,  on  doing  good, 
is  given  so  clearly  and  in  such  detail  as  to  need 
no  comment.     It  is  as  follows: 

It  is  expected  of  all  who  contiwue  in  these  so- 
cieties that  they  should  continue  to  evidence 
their  desire  of  salvation, 


THE   GENEBAL  EULES.  113 

Secondly^  hy  doing  good^  hy  being  in  every 
kind  merciful  after  their  -power ^  as  they  home 
opportv/nity^  doing  good  of  every  possible  sort^ 
a/nd^  as  far  as  possible^  to  all  men: 

To  their  bodies^  of  the  ability  which  God  giw- 
eth^  by  giving  food  to  the  hungry^  by  clothing 
the  naked,  by  visiting  or  helping  th^n  that  are 
sick  or  in  prison; 

To  their  souls^  by  instructing^  reprovingy  or 
exhorting  all  we  ha/oe  any  intercourse  with; 
tra/mn/pling  under  foot  that  enthusiastic  doctri/ne 
that  ^^ive  are  not  to  do  good  unless  our  hearts 
be  free  to  it^ 

By  doi/ng  good,  especially  to  them  that  are  of 
the  household  of  faith,  or  groaning  so  to  be; 
employing  them  preferably  to  others,  buying  one 
of  another,  helping  each  other'  iri  biisiness;  and 
so  much  tlie  more  because  the.  'woi'ldwill  love  its 
own,  a/nd  them  only. 

By  allpossihle  diligence  and  frugality,  that 
the  gospel  be  not  blamed. 

By  running  with  patience  tJie  race  which  is 
set  before  them,  denying  themselves,  and  taking 
up  their  cross  daily;  submitting  to  bear  the  re- 
proach of  Christ,  to  be  as  the  filth  and  offscour- 
ing  of  the  world,  and  looking  that  men  should 
say  all  mcmner  of  evil  of  them  falsely  for  the 
Lord'^s  sake. 


114  OUB    POLITY. 

It  is  expected  of  all  who  desire  to  continue  m 
these  societies  that  they  should  continue  to  evi- 
defice  their  desire  of  salvation^ 

Thirdly,  hy  attending  upon  all  the  ordinmices 
of  God;  such  are. 

The  public  worship  of  God. 

There  is  much  strength  in  fellowship,  no 
matter  what  the  issue;  especially  is  this  the 
case  in  spiritual  things.     No  man  is  so  strong 
as  not  to  need  the  reenf  orcement  which  comes 
from  communion  with  those  of  like  mind  and 
heart.     The  doctrines  of  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  a;id  the  brotherhood  of  man  stand  very 
close  together.     He  who  has  lost  his  seme  of 
fellowship  would  do  well  to  look  closely  into 
the  foundations  of  his  faith.     The  great  de- 
fection of  Thomas  against  his  Lord  was  due  to 
his  being  absent  from  the  fii-st  prayer  meeting 
after  the  resurrection.     "Forsake  not  the  as- 
sembling of  yourselves  together,  as  the  man- 
ner of  some  is."     When  the  Pentecost  came, 
the  disciples  were  of  one  accord  in  one  place. 
The  divine  presence  is  promised  to  the  assem- 
blies of  the  saints. 

The  ministry  of  tJie  word,  either  read  or  ex- 
pounded. 

Jesus  ordained  that   the  world  should  be 
sa^'ed  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.     There 


THE    GENERAL   RULES.  115 

is  no  substitute  for  preaching.  It  has  regu- 
lated the  ethical  state  of  men  through  the  ages, 
more  than  any  other  influence,  and  will  prob- 
ably continue  to  do  scf  to  the  end. 

Paul  asks:  "  How  can  they  hear  without  a 
preacher? "  It  may  also  be  asked:  "How  can 
he  preach  without  hearers  ? "  It  is  the  plain 
duty  of  every  member  who  can  to  attend  regu- 
larly upon  the  ministry  of  the  word,  and  espe- 
cially upon  that  of  his  own  Church.  All  the 
good  ends  of  good  preaching  are  helped  by 
good  hearing. 

The  Supper  of  the  Lord. 

Our  Lord,  who  while  living  made  himself 
of  no  reputation,  left  of  himself  when  depart- 
ing no  monument  except  that  he  made  of  the 
perishable  elements,  bread  aad  wine,  a  remem- 
brancer. Even  this  is  conditioned  upon  love 
and  faith  upon  the  part  of  those  who  eat  and 
drink.  He  did  not  designate  a  place,  a  time, 
or  a  quantity.  He  said  in  substance:  Do  this 
as  oft  as  ye  shall  do  it  in  remembrance  of  me. 
The  use  of  this  holy  sacrament  is  both  a  privi- 
lege and  a  duty.  Many  have  been  deterred 
from  it  by  foolish  and  superstitious  conceits. 
He  eats  and  drinks  worthily  who  eats  and 
drinks  with  faith,  and,  it  might  be  added, 
with  a  sense  of  his  own  unworthiness.  ' 


116  OUR    POLITY. 

It  ifi  the  place  of  the  stewards  in  each  charge 
to  procure  and  arrange  the  elements  for  the 
Hacrament.  This  should  always  be  attended 
to  in  a  becoming  way.  •  In  some  places  there 
is  much  neglect.  A  neat  pitcher,  however 
cheap,  is  better  than  the  bottle  which  some- 
times appears.  There  is  no  occasion  in  con- 
nection with  which  there  is  more  reason  that 
all  the  proprieties  should  be  carefully  ob- 
served. 

Family  and  private  pray&f. 

There  can  be  no  spiritual  life  without  prayer. 
It  is  "  ^he  Christian's  vital  breath . "  The  neg- 
lect of  it  is  always  followed  by  religious  de- 
cline. The  great  movements  of  the  Church 
can  be  marked  by  the  presence  of  men  and 
women  who  wero  mighty  in  prayer — princes 
who  prevailed  with  God. 

The  family  altar  is  the  birthplace  of  rev- 
erence and  devotion  as  is  no  other  place  on 
earth.  Parents  who  allow  their  children  to  go 
into  the  severe  ordeals  of  life  without  its  hal- 
lowed memories  and  fruits  commit  a  great 
wrong  against  their  offspring. 

Searching  the  Scriptures. 

One  might  as  well  expect  to  become  a  great 
lawyer  without  studying  the  common  law  or 
the  statutes  of  his  State  as  to  become  a  robust 


THE   GENERAL  EULE8.  117 

Christian  without  a  thorough  khowledge  and 
frequent  reading  of  the  word  of  God.  It  is 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  he  who  fights  sin 
in  himself  and  others  must  know  and  constant- 
ly use  it.  The  tendency  to  turn  all  Scripture 
study  out  of  the  family  into  the  Sunday  school 
is  pernicious.  The  home  is  the  best  place  for 
readying  and  studying  God's  word. 

Fasting  or  ahstinence. 

This  rule  has  fallen  very  much  into  disuse. 
It  is,  nevertheless,  an  important  one.  There 
are  occasions  in  religious  life  and  effort  for 
which  fasting  or  abstinence  is  an  alinost  nec- 
essary preparation.  It  is  wholesome  for  the 
body,  quickens  the  mental  faculties,  tends  to  a 
sense  of  dependence  by  impressing  us  with  the 
perishable  nature  of  our  bodies  and  of  all  ter-  ' 
restrial  life,  leads  to  gratitude  for  material 
gifts,  and  in  many  ways  helps  toward  a  more 
spiritual  order  of  living. 


n. 

The  Conferences  of  Methodism. 

When  a  number  of  persons  join  in  the  doing 
of  any  work,  it  is  well  for  them  to  understand 
thoroughly  three  things :  the  reasons  for  do- 
ing the  work,  the  methods  by  which  it  is  to 
be  done,  and  the  field  in  which  they  are  to 
labor. 

In  the  foregoing  statement  of  our  doctrines 
are  given  what  may  be  called  in  the  highest 
sense  the  reasons  for  all  the  labors  which  have 
engaged  the  Methodists  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  and  are  engaging  them  now 
throughout  the  world.  In  the  following  pages 
it  is  proposed  to  set  forth  in  a  very  brief  way 
the  polity  of  Methodism,  or  its  method  of 
working,  and  also  to  outline  at  least  the  fields 
of  its  operation. 

It  may  be  well  to  say  at  the  outset  that  the 
polity  of  Methodism  is  unique — that  is,  it  dif- 
fers in  so  many  vital  points  from  the  polities 
of  the  other  Churches  that  there  has  been 
nothing  hitherto  in  ecclesiastical  history  to 
which  it  may  be  compared.  It  will  become 
necessary  in  these  pages  to  stress  these  pe- 
(118) 


THK    <:OXFERENCKS    OF    METHODISM.  119 

culiarities,  sometimes  to  the  point  of  making 
a  comparison  of  its  results  with  those  obtained 
by  other  branches  of  the  Christian  Church,  for 
whose  character  and  methods  the  writer  en- 
tertains a  profound  respect. 

The  assembly  name  of  Methodism  in  all  its 
branches  is  the  word  "Conference."  The 
spirit  and  purpose  of  Methodist  assemblies  is 
very  well  conveyed  by  this  term,  which  means 
a  meeting  together  in  order  to  confer  touch- 
ing all  the  persons  and  interests  which  lie 
within  the  domain  of  the  Conference. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
has  five  kinds  of  Conference :  Church,  Quarter- 
ly, District,  Annual,  General. 

1.  The  Church  Conference  is  composed  of 
all  the  members  of  the  local  Church  and  resi- 
dent members  of  the  Annual  Conference. 
The  pastor  is  the  chairman.  A  secretary  is 
elected  annually  by  the  body.  This  Confer- 
ence is  very  much  like  a  family  meeting  in 
which  all  the  interests  of  the  household  may 
be  freely  discussed  and  all  local  interests 
looked  after,  and  is  invaluable  in  quickening 
all  the  interests  of  the  Church. 

The  Church  Conference  is  directed  to  meet 
once  a  month  in  stations,  and  at  least  once 
every  three  months  at  each  appointment  on 


120 


OUR    POLITY. 


circuits.     For  order  of  work  see  Discipline, 
•[91. 

^.  The  Quart&dy  Conf&rence.  —  This  body 
meets,  as  its  name  implies,  once  a  quarter,  or 
four  times  in  each  Conference  year.  It  is 
composed  of  all  the  traveling  and  local  preach- 
ers residing  within  the  circuit  or  station,  with 
the  exhorters,  stewards,  trustees,  and  class 
leaders  of  the  respective  circuits,  stations,  and 
missions,  together  with  the  superintendents  of 
Sunday  schools  who  are  male  members  of  the 
Church,  the  secretaries  of  (Church  Confer- 
ences, and  the  presidents  of  Senior  Epworth 
Leagues,  when  eligible.  The  chairman  of  the 
Quarterly  Conference  is  the  presiding  elder 
or,  in  his  absence,  the  preacher  in  charge. 
For  order  of  work  see  Discipline,  ^[87. 

3,  The  Disti'ict  Conference. — This  meeting 
is  held  once  a  year  in  each  district  at  such 
time  as  the  presiding  elder  may  appoint. 
The  District  Conference  is  composed  of  all 
the  preachers  in  the  district,  traveling  and 
local,  and  of  laymen,  the  number  of  whom 
and  the  mode  of  their  appointment  each  An- 
nual Conference  determines  for  itself.  The 
chairman  of  the  District  Conference  is  a 
bishop  or,  in  his  absence,  the  presiding  elder. 
For  order  of  work  see  Discipline,  ^  72. 


THK  COXFKRKNCKS  OF  METHODISM.    J2l 

li..  The  Annual  Conference. — This  Confer- 
ence is  composed  of  all  the  traveling  preach- 
ers in  full  connection  with  it  and  four  lay  rep- 
resentatives from  each  district.  The  lay  mem  - 
hers  are  chosen  annually  by  the  District  Con- 
ference, and  participate  in  all  the  business  of 
the  Conference  except  such  as  involves  minis- 
terial character.  The  number  and  bounds  of 
the  Annual  Conferences  are  determined  by  the 
General  Conference.  The  time  of  each  meet- 
ing is  appointed  by  the  bishop  in  charge,  and 
the  place  is  fixed  by  the  Conference.  The 
President  of  the  Annual  Conference  is  one  of 
the  bishops  or,  in  his  absence,  a  member  of 
the  Conference  elected  by  ballot.  The  presi- 
dent thus  elected  discharges  all  the  duties  of 
a  bishop  except  that  of  ordination. 

This  is  by  far  the  most  important,  though 
not  the  highest  in  authority,  of  all  the  Con- 
ferences of  Methodism.  It  has  executive  su- 
pervision of  all  the  interests  of  the  Chm-ch 
within  its  prescribed  bounds,  such  as  furnish- 
ing the  people  with  the  gospel.  Home  and 
Foreign  Missions,  Church  extension,  Sunday 
schools,  Epworth  Leagues,  and  Christian 
education.  It  has  also  large  powers  of  initia- 
tion. Indeed,  much  of  our  General  Confer- 
ence legislation  originates  as  to  the  thought 


122  OUR   POLITY. 

and  plan  within  one  or  more  of  the  Annual 
Conferences,  and  no  constitutional  matter 
passed  upon  by  the  General  Conference  can 
become  law  without  the  approval  of  three- 
fourths  of  the  members  of  all  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences. 

The  Annual  Conference  passes  at  each  ses- 
sion upon  the  personal  life  and  official  admin- 
istration of  .every  preacher  who  is  a  member 
of  it.  The  method  adopted  in  this  is  as  open 
and  clear  as  possible.  The  name  of  each  man 
is  called  in  open  Conference  under  the  ques- 
tion, "Are  all  the  preachers  blameless  in  fheir 
life  and  official  administration  ? "  The  answer 
must  be  audible  and  without  ambiguity.  If 
a  negative  answer  be  given  by  anybody,  lay 
or  clerical,  the  law  provides  for  an  immediate 
investigation,  and  the  acquittal  of  the  accused 
or  the  imposition  of  proper  penalties,  the 
extremest  of  which  is  expulsion  from  the 
ministry  and  the  Church.  The  right  of  ap- 
peal belongs  to  every  member  who  is  con- 
victed of  any  crime.  That  appeal  is  to  the 
General  Conference  next  ensuing.  If  a  mem- 
ber be  tried  and  acquitted,  .there  can  be  no  ap- 
peal: the  decision  of  the  Annual  Conference 
is  final.  The  Annual  Conference  has  the 
right  to  locate  one  of  its  members  for  ineffi- 


THE   CO^'FEKKNCES   OF   METHODISM.  123 

ciency  or  unacceptability.  Such  action  does 
not  imply  anything  against  the  personal  char- 
acter of  the  one  so  dealt  with. 

We  have  forty-six  Annual  Conferences. 
Foui-  of  these  are  in  foreign  countries,  and 
one  lies  partly  in  Mexico  and  partly  in  the 
United  States. 

5.  The  General  Conference.— This  body  is 
composed  of  an  equal  number  of  traveling 
preachers  and  laymen,  elected  by  the  several 
Annual  Conferences.  The  maximum  and  min- 
imum ratios  of  representation  are  fixed  by  what 
is  called  the  Second  Restrictive  Rule.  Within 
the  limits  thus  fixed  the  General  Conference 
may  determine  from  time  to  time  such  ratios 
as  it  may  deem  advisable.  The  present  ratio 
is  one  clerical  member  for  every  forty-eight 
members  of  each  Annual  Conference,  and  an 
equal  number  of  lay  members.  The  latest 
General  Conference  (1902)  was  composed  of 
two  hundred  and  seventy-eight  members. 

The  President  of  the  General  Conference 
is  one  of  the  bishops  or,  if  all  the  bishops 
should  be  absent  or  disabled,  a  member  of 
the  body  elected  by  ballot.  The  bishops  are 
not  members  of  the  General  Conference  oth- 
erwise than  as  Presidents  of  the  body  when 
in  session. 


124  OUE   POLITY. 

The  General  Conference  is  the  only  legis- 
lative assembly  of  the  Church,  and  its  busi- 
ness is  largely  transacted  through  estab- 
lished committees,  very  much  as  in  other  leg- 
islative bodies.  The  standing  committees 
are  fourteen  in  number,  and  are  as  follows: 
Episcopacy,  Revisals,  Boundaries,  Itinerancy, 
Missions,  Sunday  Schools,  Epworth  League, 
Education,  Temperance,  Finance,  Church 
Extension,  Publishing  Interests,  Colportage, 
Appeals. 

The  General  Conference,  being  a  delegated 
body,  representative  of  the  whole  Church, 
has  power  to  do  whatever  it  deems  best  for  the 
interests  of  the  Church  within  the  limits  pre- 
scribed in  the  Six  Restrictive  Rules.  It  has 
power  also  to  alter  any  of  these  rules  except 
the  first,  which  relates  to  the  making  of  any 
change  in  our  Articles  of  Religion.  The 
method  prescribed  for  altering  any  of  the 
other  five  is  given  in  a  proviso  to  the  Sixth 
Rule.  It  provides  that  the  proposed  change 
shall  pass  the  General  Conference  by  a  two- 
thirds  majority,  and  then  be  ratified  by 
three-fourths  of  the  members  of  the  sever- 
al Annual  Conferences  present  and  voting. 
Such  proposals  of  change  may  originate  with 
the  Annual  Conferences.     In  that  event  the 


THE    CONFEBENCES    OP   METHODISM.  125 

order  is  reversed,  and  a  three-fourths  vote 
in  the  Annual  Conferences  must  be  followed 
by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence. 

The  General  Conference  meets  once  in  f our 
years  in  the  month  of  April  or  May,  and  at 
such  place  as  it  may  select. 

In  the  interim  of  the  General  Conferences 
the  work  prescribed  by  it  is  carried  forward 
under  the  direction  of  the  following 

General  Boards. 

(1)  The  Book  Committee,  which  has  full 
supervision  of  all  our  publishing  interests, 
and  to  which  all  connectional  officers  are 
amenable  for  their  official  conduct  till  the 
meeting  of  the  General  Conference.  This 
committee  is  composed  of  thirteen  members, 
six  clerical  and  seven  lay,  elected  by  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  on  nomination  of  a  special 
committee  appointed  by  the  bishops.  It  elects 
its  own  chairman  and  secretary  quadren- 
nially. 

(2)  The  Board  of  Missions,  which  consists 
of  a  President,  Vice  President,  Secretary, 
Treasurer,  and  seventeen  managers,  elected 
by  the  General  Conference  quadrennially. 
The  bishops  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 


126  OUR   POLITY. 

Church  Extension  are  ex  officio  members  of  the 
Board. 

The  Board  of  Managers  has  full  charge  of 
all  foreign  missionary  affairs,  such  as  the 
raising  of  funds  and  their  application,  the 
selection  of  candidates  for  the  work,  and  the 
supervision  of  all  the  interests  of  the  Church 
in  foreign  fields. 

This  Board  has  also  an  Assistant  Secretary, 
elected  by  the  Board  quadrennially. 

(3)  The  Sunday  School  Board.  This  Board 
consists  of  six  members,  five  elected  quad- 
rennially by  the  General  Conference,  and  the 
Sunday  School  Editor,  who  is  elected  quad- 
rennially by  the  General  Conference,  and  who 
is  ex  officio  chairman  of  the  Board.  To  this 
Board  belongs  the  general  managenrent  of  all 
Sunday  school  interests  throughout  the 
Church. 

(4)  The  Ep worth  League  Board,  consisting 
of  thirteen  members,  six  clerical  and  six  lay 
and  one  of  the  bishops,  who  is  e,c  officio  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board.  Besides  the  President  and 
General  Secretary,  who  is  elected  quadi-en- 
nially  by  the  General  Conference,  the  other 
officers  are  three  Vice  Presidents  and  a  Treas- 
urer, who  are  elected  quadrennially  by  the 
Board. 


THE   CONFERENCES    OF   METHODISM.  127 

(5)  The  Board  of  Education,  which  is  com- 
posed of  fifteen  members,  elected  by  the 
General  Conference  on  nomination  of  the 
Committee  on  Education.  The  Board  elects 
its  own  President,  Vice  President,  and  Re- 
cording Secretary,  who  also  acts  as  Treasurer. 
The  Corresponding  Secretary,  known  as  the 
Secretary  of  Education,  is  elected  by  the 
General  Conference. 

It  is  the  duty  of  this  Board  to  supervise  all 
the  educational  interests  of  the  Church,  as 
provided  for  in  Chapter  XII.  of  the  Disci- 
pline. 

(6)  The  Board  of  Church  Extension,  which 
consists  of  a  President,  Vice  President,  Cor- 
responding Secretary,  and  Treasm-er,  and 
thirteen  members,  elected  quadrennially  by 
the  General  Conference,  and  continuing  in 
ofBce  until  their  successors  are  elected  and 
accept.  The  bishops  and  Secretary  of  Board 
of  Missions  are  ex  oftcio  members  of  the 
Board.  For  a  full  statement  of  the  work  com- 
mitted to  this  Board  see  Discipline,  1  %  381- 
393. 

All  these  Boards  meet  once  a  year,  usually 
in  the  month  of  May,  and  in  the  city  of  Nash- 
ville, except  the  Board  of  Church  Extension, 
which  meets  in  Louisville,  Ky. 


m. 

The  Itinekanot. 

The  Methodist  itinerancy  is  the  most  per- 
fectly organized  obedience  the  world  has 
yet  seen  to  the  great  commission:  "Go  ye 
into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature. " 

The  two  commands  of  the  commission  are 
to  go  and  tojpreach. 

A  Chm*ch  which  was  the  chief  exponent  of 
that  phase  of  Arminian  theology  which  teach- 
es that  all  men  are  free  to  be  saved,  and  that 
nothing  stands  in  the  way  thereto  except  their 
own  agency,  could  not  logically  stop  short  of 
claiming  the  world  for  its  parish.  To  visit- 
that  parish  with  the  gospel  was  the  great 
economic  problem  with  which  it  undertook 
to  deal  in  the  production  of  an  itinerant  plan 
for  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 

Every  one  entering  our  traveling  connec- 
tion solemnly  pledges  himself  to  go  any- 
where to  preach  the  gospel,  whither  the  ap- 
pointing power  may  send  him.  This  does  not 
mean  simply  anywhere  within  that  Annual 
Conference  with  which  he  connects  his  for- 
(128) 


THE  ITINERANCT. 


129 


tunes,  but  anywhere  within  the  range  of  a 
reasonable  demand  for  his  services. 

This  leads  me  to  remark  that  the  Metho- 
dist itinerancy  is  as  general  as  the  episcopa- 
cy. Every  preacher  who  unites  with  any 
Conference  thereby  joins  the  traveling  connec- 
tion—that is,  joins  the  ministry  of  Southern 
Methodism  to  go  whithersoever  the  bishop 
may  see  such  need  of  his  services  as  justifies 
his  appointment.  This  is  the  economic  fact 
upon  which  the  transfer  power  of  the  bishop 
is  based.  Otherwise  the  transfer  power  would 
become  nothing  more  than  a  power  of  per- 
suasion, and  as  a  matter  of  authority  amount 
to  nothing.  It  is  proper  to  say  here  that  our 
bishops  usually,  perhaps  unexceptionally,  con- 
fer with  a  preacher  to  be  transferred  from 
his  own  to  another  Conference,  so  as,  in  a 
good  measure,  to  secure  his  assent  before  he 
is  appointed.  The  bishops,  nevertheless,  have 
the  power  to  transfer  a  preacher  to  any  field 
within  our  boundaries  without  his  consent,  and 
even  against  his  will  in  the  case.  It  is  due  to  be 
said  here  that,  inasmuch  as  our  itinerancy  is  as 
general  as  our  episcopacy,  and  as  our  Church 
confers  upon  the  bishops  the  right  to  transfer 
preachers  without  any  final  right  on  the  part  of 
the  preachers  to  refuse,  such  preachers,  when 


130  OUR   POLITY. 

transferred,  have  the  same  right  to  considera- 
tion and  fellowship  as  those  who  have  been 
members  of  the  receiving  Conference  from 
the  beginning.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
transfer  has  to  forego  many  things  which  are 
peculiarly  dear  to  a  Methodist  preacher  in 
order  to  serve  the  Church  by  obeying  the  or- 
der of  Providence  and  the  appointing  power 
to  the  extent  of  leaving  his  own  Conference 
to  take  work  in  another. 

But  the  life  work  of  nearly  all  our  preach- 
ers is  within  the  bounds  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ference with  which  they  first  connect  them- 
selves. Within  those  bounds  every  man  is 
appointed  to  his  work  each  year  by  the  bish- 
op who  presides.  The  bishop  alone  is  the 
responsible  appointing  power.  This  does  not 
mean  that  no  others  exert  an  influence.  The 
bishop  receives  much  advice,  a  large  amount 
of  which  he  is  no  doubt  wise  in  disregard- 
ing. But  so  vast  a  movement  as  the  itin- 
erancy does  not  leave  so  vital  a  matter  to 
haphazard.  The  bishops  are  furnished  with 
the  best  system  possible  for  obtaining  coun- 
sel of  the  most  seasoned  kind  in  regard 
to  both  the  preachers  to  be  appointed  and 
the  fields  to  be  served.  For  the  full  vindi- 
cation of  this  position  it  is  necessary  that  we 


THE   ITINEBAXCY.  131 

glance  at  the  order  of  work  within  the  Con- 
ference. 

Each  Annual  Conference  contains  quite  a 
large  territory,  sometimes  a  whole  state, 
sometimes  a  half  state,  and  so  on,  according 
to  the  population  to  be  served,  etc.  The  lar- 
gest Conferences  have  from  one  hundred  and 
fifty  to  two  hundred  pastoral  charges,  em- 
bracing from  sixty  to  one  hundred  thou- 
sand Church  members.  Each  Conference  is 
divided  into  a  number  of  presiding  elders'  dis- 
tricts, from  ten  to  twelve,  according  to  the 
number  of  charges  in  the  Conference.  These, 
districts  usually  contain  from  twelve  to  twen- 
ty pastoral  charges.  The  presiding  elder, 
appointed  annually  by  the  bishop,  has  charge 
of  the  district,  and  his  duties  in  general  are 
to  preach  on  four  occasions  in  each  pastoral 
charge,  to  preside  over  the  Quarterly  and 
District  Conferences,  counsel  with  the  preach- 
ers for  their  own  improvement  and  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Church,  and  to  see  that  all  the 
interests  of  the  Church  are  looked  after. 
This  office  is  one  of  very  great  importance, 
and  when  duly  magnified  stands  second  only 
to  that  of  a  bishop.  It  involves  heavy  labors^ 
large  responsibilities,  and  vast  opportunities. 
This  leads  us  back  to  the  question  of  the 


132  OUR   POLITY. 

appointing  power  and  the  usual  method  of  its 
exercise.  All  the  presiding  elders  of  an  An- 
nual Conference  compose  a  council  which  has 
come  to  be  called  the  bishop's  cabinet.  Usual- 
ly the  presiding  bishop  calls  the  presiding 
elders  to  meet  him  daily,  and  they  together 
go  carefully  over  the  charges,  examining  into 
the  work  of  the  preachers,  and  making  a  ten- 
tative appointment  of  each  to  a  place.  There 
are  frequent  revisions  of  these  appointments 
before  they  are  ready  for  announcement  at 
the  close  of  the  Conference.  Not  only  does 
the  bishop  have  the  full  benefit  of  the  counsel 
of  these  chosen  advisers,  .but  any  preacher  or 
layman  has  access  to  the  presiding  elders  and 
the  bishop  to  show  any  view  he  may  hold  in 
regard  to  men  and  places.  But  after  all,  the 
responsibility  for  every  appointment  is  with 
the  bishop,  who,  if  he  should  choose,  has 
power  to  change  all  the  appointments  agreed 
upon  by  the  presiding  elders,  including  the 
places  of  the  presiding  elders  themselves. 

It  has  been  said  by  some  that  this  order 
places  too  much  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
bishops.  This  might  be  true  under  certain 
conceivable  conditions.  But  so  long  as  wise 
men  do  not  put  themselves  to  great  trouble 
to  do  foolish  things,  or  good  men  to  do  bad 


THE    ITINERANf^V. 


13a 


things,  in  either  case  without  reward  and  in 
full  view  of  persuasive  penalties,  there  is  no 
danger  of  the  misuse  of  this  peculiarly  sacred 
power.  Bishops  are,  of  course,  not  infallible, 
and  may  be  deceived  either  intentionally  on 
the  part  of  some  who  approach  them  or  un- 
wittingly on  the  part  of  others,  and  thus  mis- 
takes may  occur.  But  even  in  that  event 
there  are  more  expeditious  and  easier  correc- 
tions in  our  system  than  in  any  other  yet  tried 
by  the  Church. 

No  preacher  is  appointed  to  any  work  for 
more  than  one  year  at  a  time,  nor  can  any  be 
appointed  to  the  same  charge  for  more  than 
the  fourth  year  in  succession,  except  in  those 
peculiar  cases  provided  for  in  the  Discipline. 
Now  and  then  a  little  local  antagonism  on 
the  part  of  preachers  and  congregations  has 
appeared  on  account  of  this  feature — the  time 
limit;  but  in  reality  there  is  not  a  more  im- 
portant feature  of  the  itinerant  system. 
'  It  has  been  said  that  it  prevents  us  from 
having  a  settled  pastorate,  such  as  is  found  in 
the  Churches  which  have  the  congregational 
form  of  government,  where  the  congregation 
selects  the  pastor  and  keeps  him  so  long  as 
the  people  want  hira  and  he  wishes  to  stay. 
A  few  instances  of  a  pastorate  running  through 


134  OUB   POLITY. 

forty  or  even  fifty  years  have  given  an  incor- 
rect impression  as  to  the  average  duration 
of  the  pastoral  term  in  the  congregational 
Churches.  On  the  other  hand,  the  liability 
to  an  annual  change  in  our  pastorate  and  the 
certainty  of  it  at  the  end  ©f  four  years  have 
produced  an  erroneous  impression  as  to  its 
average  duration. 

Some  years  ago  Bishop  McTyeire  made  a 
very  careful  inquiry  into  this  matter  and 
brought  to  light  some  very  surprising  data. 
He  made  the  field  of  comparison  to  cover  the 
leading  towns  and  cities  of  the  South  and 
Southwest  where  our  Church  has  its  chief 
sphere  of  work.  The  three  leading  Congre- 
gational Churches  of  the  same  region  are  the 
Baptist,  the  Presbyterian,  and  the  Protestant 
Episcopal.  Bishop  McTyeire  obtained  the 
record  of  the  pastorates  of  these  three  Church- 
es through  a  considerable  period,  and  found 
that  the  average  pastoral  term  in  our  Chm'ch 
was  longer  than  the  average  term  in  the  other 
three — that  is,  putting  together  the  pastorates 
of  the  other  three  Churches  and  obtaining  the 
average  for  the  three,  ours  was  found  to  be 
the  longer  term.  The  Bishop  called  attention 
to  another  feature  of  the  situation  which  is 
worthy  of    note — viz.,  that   when   in  other 


THK    ITINEBANCY. 


135 


Churches  the  people  would  be  rid  of  a  pastor 
they  must  construct  a  prize  with  which  to 
lift  him  out,  while  with  the  Methodists  the 
wheel  rolls  round  on  schedule  and  rolls  him 
out.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  supe- 
riority of  the  wheel  over  the  lever  as  a  means 
of  locomotion. 

But  there  is  a  much  more  important  thing 
than  the  length  of  the  pastoral  term  which 
has  been  accomplished  by  our  system  as  by 
no  other— viz.,  the  constant  furnishing  of  all 
our  people  with  preaching  and  the  other 
means  of  grace. 

It  has  been  the  economic  boast  of  Metho- 
dism that  it  has  no  preacher  without  a  Church 
to  serve,  and  no  Church  without  a  preacher. 
In  the  congregational  Churches  this,  evil  is 
inevitable  and  constant.  Occasional  reports 
made  public  touching  this  question  show 
thousands  of  Churches  in  the  United  States 
without  a  pastor,  and  about  the  same  number 
of  pastors  without  a  Church. 

Through  the  itinerant  plan  as  used  by  us  not 
only  is  every  congregation  constantly  sup- 
plied with  pastoral  service,  but  by  reason  of 
our  connectional  order  men  are  often  appoint- 
ed to  places  where  we  have  neither  an  organ- 
ized society  nor  a  place  of  worship.    They 


136  OTJK   POLITY. 

are  sustained  out  of  a  fund  raised  in  each 
Conference  for  that  purpose  until  the  people 
have  been  evangelized  and  have  themselves 
become  contributors  to  the  further  spread  of 
the  same  gospel  which  has  saved  them. 

The  itinerancy  requires  that  many  things 
of  a  social  nature  be  foregone  by  both  pastor 
and  people,  things  which  in  themselves  are 
delightful  and  worthy  to  be  sought.  It  also 
involves  many  inconveniences,  and  even  to 
this  day  hardships  of  no  ordinary  kind.  But 
it  is  the  best  way  of  doing  the  thing  proposed, 
and  is  not  likely  to  decline  or  grow  effete  so 
long  as  the  Methodist  people  maintain  that 
spirit  of  obedience  to  the  great  commission 
which  led  to  its  origination  and  its  use  thus 
far. 

The  success  of  the  itinerancy  as  a  means 
of  evangelization  has  been  truly  wonderful. 
The  organized  movement  began  in  England 
with  all  odds  against  it  in  1739,  and  in  Amer- 
ica in  1769.  So  rapid  has  been  the  growth 
of  the  Church  that  its  members  now  number 
nearly  seven  millions,  with  probably  not  less 
than  fifty  millions  of  adherents.  It  has  not 
only  grown  populous  beyond  any  precedent, 
but  it  has  become  rich  and  influential,  and 
has  affected  favorably  the  doctrines  and  poli- 


THK    ITINEBANCTf.  "  137 

ties  of  nearly  all  the  Protestant  denomina- 
tions. God  has  unquestionably  set  his  seal  of 
approval  upon  it.  Notwitstanding  the  mar- 
velous progress  of  the  past,  it  is  evident  that 
Methodism  has  but  fairly  begun  its  career  of 
evangelization,  provided  its  leaders  and  peo- 
ple are  true  to  its  doctrines  and  life.  Many 
lands,  with  their  teeming  unsaved  millions, 
await  its  ministry.  In  no  land  where  it  has 
been  planted  thus  far  have  its  truths  and 
plans  of  work  failed  to  command  th6  respect 
and  acceptance  of  the  people. 


IV. 
Our  Mit^istry. 

We  hold  steadfastly  to  the  doctrine  that 
God  calls  those  whom  he  would  have  to  pro- 
claim his  message,  and  that  such  a  call  implies 
a  call  to  thoroughly  prepare  for  the  best  use 
of  the  holy  office. 

When  one  is  inwardly  persuaded  of  his  call 
to  the  ministry,  he  is,  if  on  examination  found 
worthy,  recommended  by  the  Quarterly  Con- 
ference of  the  charge  to  which  he  belongs  for 
license  to  preach.  This  recommendation  is 
now  to  the  District  Conference.  Formerly— 
that  is,  from  the  time  of  our  organization  till 
lg94_the  licensing  of  preachers  was  by  the 
Quarterly  Conference.  The  District  Confer- 
ence receiving  the  recommendation  examines 
into  the  gifts,  graces,  and  usefulness  of  the 
candidate;  and,  finding  him  worthy,  grants  a 
license  for  one  year,  which  must  thereafter  be 
annually  renewed  until  the  local  preacher  thus 
made  is  ordained  a  deacon.  This  ordination 
comes  in  due  course,  by  vote  of  the  An- 
nual Conference,  in  four  years,  provided 
the  local  preacher  has  done  satisfactory  work 
and  is  recommended  by  the  District  Confer- 
(138) 


OUR   MINISTBY. 


139 


ence  for  this  order.    If  the  local  preacher  thus 
made  desires  to  join  the  traveling  connection, 
he  procures  a  recommendation  from  the  Dis- 
trict Conference  to  the  Annual  Conference  for 
admission  on  trial.     At  the  session  of  the  An- 
nual Conference  he  is  examined  by  two  com- 
mittees  touching  his  gifts,  attainments,  and 
suitableness  for  this  work.     If  found  worthy, 
and  if  he  be  needed,  he  is  admitted  on  trial 
by  a  majority  vote  of  the  Annual  Conference. 
He  is  not  then  a  member  of  the  Conference, 
but  is  a  local  preacher  on  trial  to  become  a 
member.     If  at  the  expiration  of  two  years 
he  has  proven  his  fitness  for  the  work,  and 
passed  satisfactory  examinations  on  the  course 
of  study  for  the  two  years,  he  is  by  order  of 
the  Conference  ordained  a  deacon  and  admit- 
ted into  membership  in  the  Conference.     If 
he  continue  for  two  years  more  to  demon- 
strate his  fitness  for  the  work,  and  pass  the  re- 
quired examinations  on  the  com-se  of  study  tor 
the  third  and  fourth  years,  he  is  ordained  an 

elder.  u  •     • 

When-  once  admitted  into  membership  in 
the  traveling  connection,  there  are  five  ways 
of  going  out:  To  withdraw;  to  die;  to  be  ex- 
pelled for  immorality,  as  provided  for  m  the 
Discipline;  to  ask  for  and  receive  a  location; 


140  OUR  POLITY. 

and  to  be  located  by  vote  of  the  Conference 
for  inefficiency  or  unacceptability.  When  lo- 
cation occurs,  either  by  request  or  by  the  un- 
solicited vote  of  the  Conference,  the  one  thus 
located  remains  a  local  preacher. 

It  should  here  be  noted  that  the  work  of  a 
local  preacher  is  chiefly  to  preach  within  the 
charge  to  which  he  belongs,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  preacher  in  charge,  and  to  assist  in 
all  manner  of  religious  work  as  opportunity 
may  offer.  The  local  preacher  pursues  some 
other  vocation  for  a  livelihood,  and  usually 
receives  nothing  for  his  services  as  a  preach- 
er. The  local  preacher  has  been,  through 
most  of  our  history,  a  great  power  in  the 
Church.  With  the  multiplication  of  reg- 
ular pastors,  and  a  decrease  in  the  size  of 
pastoral  charges,  by  which  most  of  our  peo- 
ple are  furnished  with  frequent  opportuni- 
ties for  hearing  the  word,  there  has  come 
a  decline  in  our  local  ministry  which  is  to 
be  much  regretted.  There  is  still  room  for 
the  constant  employment  of  thousands  of 
such  godly  and  devoted  men,  and  the  seer 
who  can  suggest  a  plan  by  which  the  local 
ministry  can  be  restored  to  its  pristine  pow- 
er and  spiritual  glory  will  confer  a  lasting 
benefit  upon  the  Church.     The  English  Meth- 


OUR   MINISTKY. 


141 


odists,  amidst  their  crowded  conditions,  are 
making  great  use  of  it. 

Within  the  Annual  Conference,  and  apart 
from  those  who  are  in  the  active  work,  there  are 
supernumerary  and  superannuated  preachers. 
•'A  supernumerary  preacher  is  one  who  is  so 
disabled  by  affliction  as  to  be  unable  to  preach 
constantly,  but  who  is  willing  to  do  any  work 
in  the  ministry  which  the  bishop  may  direct 
and  he  may  be  able  to  perform.''  "A  super- 
annuated preacher  is  one  who  is  worn  out  in 
the  itinerant  service."  Superannuated  preach- 
ers are  supported  in  whole  or  in  part,  usually 
in  part,  and  a  very  small  part  at  best,  out  of 
the  superannuates'  fund— a  fund  raised  chiefly 
by  collections  throughout  the  Annual  Confer- 
ence for  that  purpose. 

The  highest  place  in  om-  ministry  is  that  of 
bishop,  or  General  Superintendent.  Om-  bish- 
ops are  elected  by  the  General  Conference, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  a  delegated  body 
composed  of  an  equal  number  of  traveling 
preachers  and  laymen.  Bishops  are  in  every 
way  amenable  ito  the  body  which  makes  them. 
The  life  and  oflficial  administration  of  each  is 
passed  under  review  once  in  f  oiu:  years.  This 
is  done  in  what  is  known  as  the  Committee  on 
Episcopacy.     Any  preacher  or  layman  in  the 


142  OTJB   POLITY. 

connection  may  come,  by  letter  or  in  per  on, 
before  this  committee  with  any  complaint  he 
may  wish  to  make.  It  thus  happens  that  our 
bishops'  lives  are  lived  in  the  open  like  those 
of  all  our  preachers.  No  class  is  held  to  a 
stricter  accountability;  and  yet  there  is  in 
that  Committee,  as  elsewhere,  a  profound 
reverence  for  the  oflBce  and  for  those  who 
are  called  to  fill  it.  This  is  largely  due  to 
the  unimpeachable  integrity  and  purity  of 
those  who  have  been  occupants  of  that 
place.  We  have  never  had  a  case  of  trouble 
with  a  bishop  on  moral  grounds,  and  none 
of  a  serious  nature  on  grounds  of  adminis- 
tration. 

The  College  of  Bishops  meets  once  a  year, 
in  the  month  of  May,  to  consider  all  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Church  committed  to  them.  There 
is  an  annual  assignment  made  of  each  bishop  to 
the  work  of  the  ensuing  year.  This  is  done 
through  a  committee  of  bishops  appointed  for 
that  purpose  by  the  College. 

There  is  no  class  of  preachers  among  us  to 
which  is  assigned  so  long  and  varied  a  list  of 
duties  as  to  our  bishops.  Their  responsibili- 
ties are  of  the  largest,  and  their  fields  of  labor 
practically  boundless.  This  will  be  readily 
seen  by  reading,  in  Chapter  III.,  Section  2,  of 


OUR   MIXISTRY. 


143 


the  Discipline,  what  the  Church  provides  that 
its  bishops  shall  do. 

The  bishops,  being  general  superintendents, 
are  supported  by  the  general  Church  out  of 
funds  collected  for  the  purpose  within  each 
Annual  Conference.  Bishops  who  have  be- 
come superannuated,  and  the  widows  and  chil- 
dren of  deceased  bishops,  are  sustained  in  the 
same  way.  Both  the  salaries  and  allowances 
are  fixed  by  recommendation  of  the  Commit- 
tee on  Episcopacy. 


V. 

Our  CoifNECTioisrALisM. 

We  may  say,  without  any  disparagement 
of  other  forms  of  Church  government,  that 
there  is  one  element  in  Methodism  which  sur- 
passes anything  hitherto  known  in  Church 
organization.  That  feature  may  be  called 
the  genius  of  it  rather  than  a  mere  element. 
We  refer  to  its  connectionalism.  We  call  it 
the  genius  of  Methodism  because  it  pervades 
with  its  spirit  every  part  of  the  system  from 
the  reception  of  a  preacher  on  trial  to  the 
bishopric  or  general  superintendence,  and  is 
in  all  the  work  of  the  Church  from  the  exten- 
sion of  church  -  building  within  the  home 
field  to  the  giving  of  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.  By  connectionalism  we  mean  that 
summation  of  conditions  by  which  the  whole 
Church  is  present  in  a  good  sense  wherever 
any  part  of  it  exists — that  is,  each  part  is  in 
vital  relation  to  all  the  others.  The  most  in- 
experienced preacher  in  the  humblest  field  is 
there  in  effect  by  the  appointment  or  will  of 
the  whole  Church.  The  Church  brings  this 
appointment  about  by  the  simplest  and  most 
rational  method  possible.  Tt  is  through  the 
(144) 


OUR    CONNECTIONALISM.  145 

bishop,  who  has  a  wholly  general  relation,  and 
who  is  as  truly  subject  to  appointment  by  his 
peers  as  the  pastors  are  to  appointment  by 
him.  He  has  his  work  assigned  him  once  a 
year,  and  each  time  his  field  is  as  liable  to  be 
within  China  or  Brazil  as  in  Tennessee.  But 
this  general  superintendence,  which  is  thus 
free  from  local  prejudices,  is  not  a  haphazard 
matter.  The  bishop  does  his  work  after 
coimsel  from  the  presiding  elders,  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  know  in  as  far  as  possible  both  the 
man  and  the  field.  The  bishops  themselves 
are  elected  to  this  work  by  the  whole  Church 
in  a  delegated  assembly,  which  is  composed 
of  traveling  preachers  and  laymen  in  equal 
numbers,  and  the  bishops  are  constantly  ame- 
nable to  this  body  for  the  way  in  which  they 
exercise  this  appointing  power  as  well  as  all  oth- 
er functions  which  belong  to  the  office.  It  is 
in  this  way  that  the  whole  Church  makes  the 
appointment  of  any  preacher,  whether  he  be 
the  pastor  of  the  remotest  mission,  with  its 
peculiar  hardships,  or  the  episcopacy,  with  its 
fullness  of  care  and  responsibility.  This 
principle  finds  most  impressive  illustration 
when  an  Annual  Conference  meets  in  its  last 
session  to  receive  the  appointments.  In  the 
^hole  body  not  a  man  knows  certainly  what 
10 


146  OUR   POLITY. 

his  field  of  labor  will  be  until  the  pronounce- 
ment falls  from  the  lips  of  the  bishop,  the 
man  through  whom  the  Church  appoints  him. 
These  men  are  not  less  ardent  in  their  at- 
tachments because  of  the  fact  that  their  sys- 
tem makes  them  cosmopolitan  in  their  sym- 
pathies and  habits  of  thought.     No  men  have 
stronger  individuality  or  more  definite  pref- 
erences than  Methodist  preachers:    They  go, 
nevertheless,  whithersoever  they  are  sent  with 
a  good  cheer  which  is  utterly  inexplicable  to 
those  who  do  not  understand  the  workings  of 
our  system.     There  is  no  truer  exhibition  of 
moral  sublimity  in  all  the  organizations  of 
men  than  an  Annual  Conference  receiving  the 
appointments. 

There  is  not  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  hu- 
man history  such  a  combination  of  self-sur- 
render and  pure  democracy  as  is  found  in  the 
Methodist  itinerancy  and  its  loyal  acceptance 
by  the  Church.  The  self-surrender  element 
is  found  in  the  Catholic  Church,  especially  in 
its  Jesuitism,  but  the  democracy  is  not  there. 
With  the  Romanists  everything  proceeds  from 
a  so-called  infallible  pope;  with  the  Metho- 
dists everything,  including  its  qiinistry 
throughout,  is  of  the  Church.  The  self- 
surren(iler  of  the  Methodist  preacher,   while 


OITR    CONXECTTOXALISM.  147 

in  a  broad  and  high  sense  absolute,  is  yet  un- 
der guard  of  a  democratic  order  so  thorough 
and  complete  as  to  take  out  of  it  all  elements 
of  mere  chance  and  as  far  as  possible  all  dan- 
gers from  mere  personal  prejudice.  In  other 
words,  his  surrender  is  not  to  any  man  or 
committee  of  men,  but  to  the  whole  Church 
for  the  good  of  the  whole.  Not  only  so,  but 
the  surrender  of  the  right,  on  the  part  of  the 
preacher,  to  choose  his  field  of  work  is  an- 
swered back  to  by  the  surrender,  on  the  part 
of  the  congregation,  of  its  right  to  choose  a 
pastor.  And  yet  there  is  no  lack  of  intelli- 
gent counsel  both  ways.  A  practical  outcome 
of  this  order  is  that  probably  no  Church  is  bet- 
ter satisfied  with  its  pastors,  and  no  preachers 
more  unselfishly  devoted  to  their  people. 

As  it  is  in  the  ministry,  so  it  is  in  the  work 
of  the  Church.  The  Church  itself  in  general 
council  determines  what  work  shall  be  under- 
taken of  a  general  order,  and  by  a  rational 
method  determines  what  part  of  the  work 
shall  be  done  by  each  part  of  the  Church,  and 
thus  stands  back  of  the  individual  pastor,  as 
he  proceeds  to  his  task,  and  furnishes  the 
pledge  of  its  assembled  wisdom  to  each  con- 
gregation as  it  goes  forward  with  the  achieve- 
ment of  its  part  of  the  whole.     It  will  be 


148  OUR   POLITY. 

easily  seen  that  this  plan  greatly  reenforces 
the  individual  invention  of  the  pastor,  and, 
when  the  pastor  is  wholly  lacking  in  inven- 
tion, provides  for  a  safe  and  harmonious 
schedule  of  Church  work. 

In  the  connectional  order  of  Methodism 
the  Boards  of  Management  are  truly  General 
Boards.  Each  Annual  Conference  has  its  own 
Boards,  but  in  addition  to  superintending  lo- 
cal or  Conference  interests  these  Boards  have 
a  connectional  side.  They  execute  within  the 
Annual  Conferences  the  plans  of  the  General 
Boards.  The  General  Boards  are  created  by 
the  General  Conference  every  four  years,  and 
in  all  the  interests  committed  to  them  they 
stand  for  the  General  Conference  in  the  in- 
terims of  its  meetings.  In  this  way  the  will 
of  the  general  Church  or  General  Confer- 
ence is  made  to  run  on  without  lack  of 
authority  or  resources  as  surely  and  as  suc- 
cessfully as  if  each  interest  were  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence itself.  As  a  result  of  this  arrange- 
ment, whatever  these  Boards  undertake, 
within  the  limitations  put  upon  them,  be- 
comes a  matter  for  the  whole  Church,  in  the 
doing  of  which  the  honor  of  the  Church  is 
involved,  and  in  which  the  loyalty  of  every 


OUR   CONNECTIONALISM.  149 

charge  to  the  will  of  the  general  Church  comes" 
into  play. 

There  are  certain  things  which  stand  related 
to  this  connectional  organization  very  much 
as  in  geometry  a  corollary  is  related  to  a  the- 
orem and  its  processes  of  demonstration. 
Logically  considered,  they  are  "obvious  con- 
sequences," whether  they  have  as  yet  mate- 
rialized into  a  part  of  our  polity,  as  some  of 
them  have,  or  stand  forth  only  in  the  form  of 
a  logical  demand  that  the  Church  shall  use 
them. 

One  of  these  corollaries  is  the  transfer 
power,  which  is  born  of  the  relation  of  our 
general  superintendency  to  our  general  itiner- 
ancy as  set  forth  in  the  discussion  of  "Our 
Itinerancy." 

Two  other  conclusions  which  connectional- 
ism  was  bound  to  reach,  and  did  reach  long 
ago,  were  a  connectional  organ  and  a  connec- 
tional publishing  interest.  How  well  these 
have  worked,  we  have  all  seen  long  ago. 
Some  years  ago,  when  the  Publishing  House 
became  involved  to  a  point  of  practical  insol- 
vency, the  connectional  spirit  was  appealed 
to,  and  a  process  was  begun  which  resulted 
quickly  in  its  recuperation,  and  brought  it  in 
a  short  while  to  foundations  which  are  among 


150  OUR   POLITY. 

the  secui-est  in  modern  commerce.  The  same 
thing  was  illustrated  in  the  payment  in  one 
year  of  a  missionary  debt  of  more  than  one 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars  without 
.diminishing  the  regular  collections  for  that 
interest.  This  magnificent  result  was  largely 
due  to  the  fact  that  when  the  Secretary,  Dr. 
Morrison,  went  forth  on  his  mission  he  was 
as  much  at  home  and  in  authority  in  San 
Francisco  as  he  was  in  Nashville,  where  the 
oflices  of  the  Boards  are  located.  Again  the 
rallying  of  the  connectional  spirit,  and  the 
use  of  the  connectional  opportunity,  saved 
the  cause. 

But  there  are  two  other  conclusions  which 
are  inevitable  from  the  connectional  order  of 
Methodism,  which  are  just  beginning  to  be 
realized  as  a  part  of  the  polity  of  the  Church. 
One  of  these  is  a  connectional  system  of  edu- 
cation. The  present  Board  of  Education  has 
taken  steps  which  unquestionably  tend  in  that 
direction,  and  some  progress  has  been  made 
toward  practical  results.  Indeed,  the  act  of 
the  Board  of  Trust  of  Vanderbilt  University 
and  of  the  General  Conference  in  making 
that  institution  the  university  of  the  whole 
Church  gives  promise  of  a  thoroughly  re- 
lated and  compacted  system  which  will  en- 


OUR   CONNECTIOXALISM. 


151 


able  us  to  lead  the  van,  not  by  the  sacrifice  of 
other  great  schools,  but  by  an  order  which 
will  help  them  all,  and  which  will  reach 
down  and  clasp  hands  with  the  public  school 
system  so  as  to  conserve  rather  chan  in  any 
sense   surrender   the    Methodist   element   in 

them. 

But  perhaps  the  finest  conclusion,  and  one 
which  we  are  barely  entering  upon,  is  the 
creation  of  a  connectional  fund  for  our  super- 
annuated preachers.     The  doing  of  this  is  an 
easy  thing  under  a  proper  plan  and  with  the 
right  time  limits.    This  is  a  matter  in  which 
we  can  much  better  afford  to  go  slowly  than 
not  to  go  at  all.     The  lifetime  of  a  Church  is 
a   long  stretch.     So  long  as  om-   itinerancy 
continues,  the  worn-out  preacher  without  re- 
sources is  to  be  a  stupendous  fact  in    our 
Church   life.     The  late  General  Conference 
(1902)   determined  upon  the  raising  of  five 
million  dollars  for  this  purpose.     The  sources 
chiefly  relied  upon  under  that  order  are  pop- 
ular collections  and  bequests.     Other  sources 
will  probably  be  put  under  contribution  later. 
There  are  at  least  two  others  which  might 
be  used  with  great  profit  to  the  fund.     The 
first  of  these  is  a  certain  per  cent  of  the  pop- 
ular collection  in  every  charge.     The  stimu- 


152 


OUR    POLITY. 


lating  effect  of  such  a  movement  would  make 
the  remaining  per  cent  a  larger  amount  than 
that  which  is  now  raised  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, and  would  result  in  the  bringing  of 
this  great  claim  clearly  before  oui-  people. 
The  second  is  a  fixed  percentage  of  the  clear- 
ings of  the  Publishing  House. 

After  all,  nothing  of  an  economic  kind 
would  have  a  better  effect  in  guarding  our 
ministry  against  the  danger  of  the  contin- 
uance of  inefficient  men  in  the  traveling  con- 
nection. Such  a  fund  would  bring  a  better 
service  and  a  gi-eater  dignity  to  the  Church, 
and  a  larger  sense  of  security  to  the  faithful 
men  who  are  toiling  on  amidst  galling  limita- 
tions to  serve  their  generation  by  the  will  of 
God. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  Methodist  polity, 
when  operated  according  to  its  design,  is  an 
organization  of  tremendous  force  and  un- 
equaled  flexibility.  The  system  is  capable 
of  a  vast  impact,  one  which  is  scarcely  re- 
sistible within  the  domain  of  the  Church's 
work.  But  from  the  fact  that  our  polity  is 
a  perfect  concatenation  of  parts — that  is,  a 
chain  of  essential  links — it  follows  that  a 
want  of  strength  or  adjustment  at  any  point 
affects  the  efficiency  of  the  whole  order.     It 


OUR   CONNECTIONALISM.  153 

implies,  therefore,  an  extraordinary  respon- 
sibility for  all  those  who  have  any  vital  con- 
nection with  the  operation  of  the  system. 

From  what  has  been  said  concerning  the 
relation  of  parts  in  our  system,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  that  we  are  at  the  farthest  remove 
from  the  congregational  system.  The  two 
orders  are  as  unlike  as  possible.  They  will 
not  mix.  Whether  the  congregational  order 
could  be  improved  by  the  organic  adoption 
of  certain  features  of  our  polity  is  a  curious 
question  on  which  we  do  not  desire  to  enter; 
but  that  any  tendency  toward  congregational- 
ism,  or  even  broader  forms  of  localizing, 
works  detriment  to  our  interests  there  can 
scarcely  be  any  question.  It  is  a  question 
whether  or  not  there  is  such  a  tendency  in 
some  sections  among  us.  We  have  occasion- 
ally seen  symptoms  which  look  in  this  direc- 
tion, but  nothing  which  indicates  a  serious 
change  of  thought,  only  a  loss  of  sympathy. 
It  is  well,  however,  for  every  pastor  and 
teacher  to  keep  careful  and  statesmanlike 
guard  over  the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  our 
connectional  order  and  interests.  And  it  is 
well  to  remember  that  this  loyalty  is  not  a 
thing  to  be  effected  by  the  exercise  of  author- 
ity, but  to  be  developed  by  a  broad  intelli- 


J  54  OUR   POLITY. 

gence  as  to  the  nature  of  our  polity  and  of 
the  vastness  and  importance  of  the  general 
work  which  the  Church  has  taken  in  hand,  a 
work  which  is  impossible  of  full  accomplish- 
ment except  by  the  cordial  cooperation  of  all 
the  congregations.    It  sometimes  happens  that 
a  community,  or  an  element  in  a  community, 
loses  sympathy  with  the  general  movements 
of  the  Church,  then  loses  the  sense  of  connec- 
tionalism;  and  finally,  finding  itself  unable  to 
cooperate  in  this  disjointed  state  with    the 
gi-eat  body,  goes  off  into  independence— that 
is,  becomes  congregational.     As  a  rule,  such 
movements  have  not  succeeded;  as  a  rule, 
they  probably  never  will.    The  conditions  of 
success  which  belong  to  the  regular  congrega 
tional  system  are  wanting,  and  the  conditions 
which  bring  success  to  a  connectional  Church 
have  been  rejected. 

What  Methodism  could  do,  if  every  man 
would  only  do  his  duty  in  an  ordinary  meas- 
ure, staggers  conception.  It  is  able  not  only 
to  girdle  the  globe  with  a  holy  and  trium- 
phant evangelism,  but  also  to  belt  it  with  insti- 
tutions of  learning,  of  reform,  and  of  char- 
ity. To  have  part  in  the  operation  of  a  sys- 
tem the  possibilities  of  which  are  beyond 
speech -7- almost  beyond   figures --implies    a 


OXm   CONNBCTIONALISM.  155 

vAst  responsibility,  the  very  thought  of  which 
ought  to  arouse  every  Methodist  to  new  vigor 
in  the  doing  of  his  part.  The  system  itself  is 
in  default  at  no  point.  The  only  trouble  is  a 
lack  of  fidelity  on  the  part  of  those  who  have 
formally  given  their  allegiance  but  have  with- 
held their  aid. 


VI. 
Fields  of  "Work. 

Missions. 

The  missionary  work  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  is  divided  into 
Foreign  Missions  and  Home  Missions,  and  is 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Board, 
the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Board,  and  one 
Board  in  each  of  the  Annual  Conferences. 

The  statistics  of  these  several  fields  are  as 
follows: 

BOARD  OF  MISSIONS. 

The  following  figures  show  the  increase  in 
contributions  for  missions  in  the  quadren- 
nium  ending  March  31,  1902: 

Prom 
Eegular  Collections.    All  Sources. 

1899 $    320,494  92     $    255,525  03 

1900 235,116  51  284,220  46 

1901 267,084  32  330,356  65 

1902 291,672  79  362,135  85 

Total  for  quadrennium .  .$1,014,368  44     $1,232,237  99 
Former  quadrennium...      901,593  24       1,077,388  13 

Increase... $    113,775  20     $    154,849  86 

Number  of  missionaries,  160.     Number  of 
native  preachers,  102. 
(156) 


FIELDS    OF    WORK.  157 

CHINA   MISSION  CONFERENCE. 

This  mission  was  founded  in  1848.  Our  first 
missionary  in  that  field  was  Rev.  Chas.  Taylor, 
of  the  South  Carolina  Conference.  The  latest 
reports  give  the  following  figures:  Mission- 
aries (including  wives),  33;  native  traveling 
preachers,  15;  members,  934;  Sunday  schools, 
29;  scholars,  1,712;  Epworth  Leagues,  18; 
membership,  599;  organized  Churches,  27; 
Churches  entirely  self-supporting,  3;  board- 
ing schools,  2;  pupils,  264;  day  schools,  8; 
pupils,  153;  hospital,  1;  dispensaries,  2;  pa- 
tients treated,  16,462;  total  collections,  $1,- 
416.55;  total  value  of  mission  property,  $195,- 
932.50. 

THE  KOREA  MISSION. 

The  Korea  Mission  forms  one  district  of 
the  China  Mission  Conference;  but  the  lan- 
guage, national  life,  and  general  conditions 
make  the  work  so  radically  different  that 
financially  and  administratively  it  is  separate- 
ly considered  by  the  Board.  It  was  opened 
by  Bishop  Hendrix  in  1895.  Dr.  C.  F.  Reid, 
of  the  China  Mission,  was  appointed  superin- 
tendent. The  conversion  of  Mr.  T.  H.  Yun 
and  his  urgent  appeal  to  enter  Korea  became 
a  call  of  Providence  to  the  Church.  The  su- 
perintendent reports:  Missionaries  (including 


158  OUR    POLITY. 

wives),  12;  local  preachers  and  helpers,  28; 
members,  424  (increase,  155);  Sunday  schools, 
11;  scholars,  343;  dispensary,  1;  patients 
treated,  405;  collections,  $272;  total  value  of 
mission  property,  $30,115. 

JAPAN  MISSION  CONFERENCE. 

Our  work  was  begun  in  this  field  in  1886 
by  Drs.  J.  W.  and  W.  R.  Lambuth  and  O. 
A.  Dukes.  The  mission  was  organized  into 
an  Annual  Conference  in  1892.  In  this  An- 
nual Conference  we  have:  Missionaries  (in- 
cluding wives),  39;  native  traveling  preach- 
ers, 11;  members,  744;  Sunday  schools,  42; 
scholars,  1,654;  Epworth  Leagues,  2;  mem- 
bers, 60;  organized  Churches,  15;  Churches 
entirely  self-supporting,  2;  boarding  schools, 
2;  pupils,  586;  day  schools,  8;  pupils,  181; 
total  collections,  $1,245.17;  total  value  of 
mission  property,  $62,694. 

BRAZIL  MISSION  CONFERENCE. 

Our  missionary  operations  in  Brazil  had 
their  commencement  in  1872,  when  Rev.  J.  eJ. 
Ransom,  our  first  missionary  to  that  field,  was 
sent  out.  The  mission  was  organized  into  an 
Annual  Conference  in  1886.  There  are  now 
in  the  Brazil  Mission  Conference:  Mission- 
aries (inchiding  AviVes),    28;  native  traveling 


FIELDS    OF   WORK.  159 

preachers,  1^;  members,  3,^43;  Sunday  schools, 
65;  scholars,  2,370;  Epworth  Leagues,  7; 
members,  315;  organized  Churches,  48;  Church- 
es entirely  self-supporting,  7;  boarding  school, 
1;  pupils,  53;  day  school,  1;  pupils,  39;  total 
collections,  $7,301.38;  total  value  of  mission 
property,  $115,338. 

MEXICO. 

In  thirty  years  this  mission  has  grown  into 
three  Annual  Conferences.  The  combined  sta- 
tistics of  the  Central  (organized  in  1886),  the 
Northwest  (organized  in  1890),  and  the  Mexi- 
can Border  (organized  in  1885)— three  Mis- 
sion Conferences  now  in  Mexico,  which  rep- 
resent the  fruits  of  incessant  toil  and  heroic 
devotion  for  thirty  years— are:  Missionaries 
(including  wives),  34;  native  traveling  preach- 
ers, 53;  members,  5,814  (increase,  106);  Sun- 
day schools,  116;  scholars,  3,862;  Epworth 
Leagues,  47;  members,  1,545;  organized 
Churches,  168;  Churches  entirely  self-support- 
ing, 5;  boarding  school,  1;  pupils,  212;  hos- 
pitals, 2;  patients  treated,  3,133;  total  collec- 
tions, $5,180.30;  total  value  of  mission  prop- 
erty, $167,107.08. 

CUBA  MISSION. 

Our  first  work  in  Havana  was  organized  in 
1896,  and  in  1898  Cuba  was  taken  under  the 


160  OUE   POLITY, 

control  of  the  Board  as  a  regular  mission  field. 
We  are  establishing  ourselves  firmly  on  the 
island,  as  is  shown  by  the  erection  of  a  sub- 
stantial stone  church  in  Matanzas  and  the  pur- 
chase by  Bishop  Candler  for  $15,000  of  a  cen- 
trally located  property  in  Havana  well  adapted 
for  church  and  school  purposes.  The  work 
has  grown  steadily,  there  being  a  marked  in- 
crease over  last  year.  Rev.  D.  W.  Carter,  su- 
perintendent of  the  mission,  reports  the  follow- 
ing statistics:  Missionaries  (incuding  wives), 
14;  native  traveling  preachers,  2;  members, 
454  (increase,  62);  Sunday  schools,  9;  scholars, 
552;  Epworth  Leagues,  3;  organized  Churches, 
8;  day  schools,  3;  pupils,  288;  collections  for 
all  purposes,  $2,884.57;  total  value  of  mission 
property,  $40,000. 

OTHER  MISSIONS. 

In  addition  to  these  six  foreign  mission 
fields  occupied  by  our  -Church,  we  have  a  Ger- 
man Mission  and  an  Indian  Mission  Confer- 
ence, and  our  General  Board  of  Missions  to 
aid  the  work  of  our  Church  in  the  Pacific,  the 
Los  Angeles,  the  Columbia,  the  East  Colum- 
bia, the  Denver,  the  Montana,  the  Western, 
and  the  New  Mexico  Conferences. 


FIELDS    OF   WORK.  1^1 

OFFICERS  OF  THE  BOARD. 

The  officers  of  the  Board  for  the  quadren- 
nium  beginning  May,  1902,  are  as  follows: 
Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  President;  Rev.  James 
Atkins,  Vice  President;  Rev.  Walter  R.  Lam- 
buth.  Secretary;  Rev.  Seth  Ward,  Assistant 
Secretary;  J.  D.  Hamilton,  Treasurer. 

Woman's  Boakd  of  Foreign  Missions. 

This  Board  was  given  its  constitution  in 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  by  the  General  Conference,  in 
1878.  During  the  first  year  $4,104. 27  was  col- 
lected, but  the  service  at  home  last  year  result- 
ed in  $104,017.95,  making  the  total  of  $1,396,- 
188  collected  since  organization.  The  Wom- 
an's Board  supports  67  missionaries  in  the 
following  countries:  China,  Korea,  Brazil, 
Mexico,  and  Cuba.  The  women  sent  out  oc- 
cupy 29  stations,  conduct  22  boarding  schools 
and  61  day  schools,  and  there  are  170  native 
and  foreign  assistant  teachers,  78  Bible  wom- 
en, 218  scholarships,  6  kindergartens,  2  hos- 
pitals, and  2  Bible  schools.  There  are  567 
boarding  pupils,  1,008  day  school  pupils,  with 
about  five  thousand  women  and  children  under 
instruction,  about  two  thousand  of  whom  are 
Sunday  school  pupils.  The  value  of  property 
owned  by  the  Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
11 


162  OUB   POLITY. 

sions,  including  the  Scarritt  Bible  and  Train- 
ing School,  is  ^01,500. 

The  officers  of  the  Board  are  as  follows: 
Mrs.  M.  D.  Wightman,  President;  Miss  Maria 
L.  Gibson,  First  Vice  President;  Mrs.  A.  W. 
Wilson,  Second  Vice  President;  Mrs.  S.  C. 
Trueheart,  Corresponding  Secretary;  Mrs.  T. 
B.  Hargrove,  Recording  Secretary;  Mrs.  H. 
N.  McTyeire,  Treasurer. 

Woman's  Home  Mission  Society. 

The  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  came  into 
existence  in  1886. 

The  object  of  this  Society  is  to  enlist  Chris- 
tian women  and  children  in  secui'ing  homes 
for  itinerant  preachers,  in  helping  to  make 
comfortable  the  families  of  those  ministers 
whose  charges  are  unable  to  provide  sufficient 
support,  and  providing  religious  instruction 
for  the  neglected  and  destitute. 

OFFICERS. 

Miss  Belle  H.  Bennett,  Richmond,  Ky., 
President;  Mrs.  John  D.  Hammond,  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  First  Vice  President;  Mrs.  F.  B. 
Carroll,  Dallas,  Tex.,  Second  Vice  President; 
Mrs.  R.  W.  MacDonell,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Gen- 


FIELDS    OF    "WORK.  163 

eral  Secretary;  Miss  Emily  M.  Allen,  Macon, 
Ga.,  Recording  Secretary;  Mrs.  W.  D.  Kirk- 
land,  Nashville,  Tenn. ,  General  Treasurer. 

STATISTICS. 

Number  of  members,  29,034;  receipts  for 
connectional  work,  $269,935.11;  receipts  for 
local  work,  $456,010.55;  total  receipts,  $725,- 
945.66;  number  of  parsonages  built  and  aided, 
1,265;  money  donated  to  parsonages,  $117,- 
284.23;  money  loaned  to  parsonages,  $37,100; 
value  of  supplies  distributed  outside  of  re- 
ceipts above  stated,  $44,921.06;  number  of 
boarding  and  day  schools  supported,  4;  num- 
ber of  night  schools  supported,  5;  number  of 
pupils  enrolled,  1,080;  number  of  missionaries 
and  teachers  employed,  47;  number  of  city 
mission  boards,  9;  number  of  Rescue  Homes 
and  Doors  of  Hope,  2;  value  of  property, 
$69,000. 

PABSONAOES. 

During  the  year  the  Board  granted  $3,475 
to  37  parsonages,  while  the  Conference  Socie- 
ties, through  their  50  per  cent  of  dues,  helped 
92  to  the  amount  of  $6,424,  thus  making  a  to- 
tal of  129  parsonages  granted  $9,899.  Since 
organization  1,265  parsonages  have  been  aided 
to  the  amount  of  $117,284.23. 


164  OUB   POLITY. 

SUPPLIES. 

Last  year  goods  valued  at  $8,136.54  were 
forwarded  to  the  heroes  who  hold  those  fields 
known  as  the  "hard  appointments."  In  ten 
years  $44,021.06  has  been  distributed  through 
this  department. 

SCHOOLS. 

Of  no  part  of  our  work  are  we  more  hope- 
ful than  of  these  character-building  institu- 
tions. The  three  schools  for  the  Cubans  at 
Tampa,  Ybor  City,  and  Key  West  haVe  been 
filled  by  403  scholars  under  the  instruction  of 
14  teachers. 

At  London,  Ky.,  the  pupilage  has  been  265, 
and  during  the  year  32  students  have  been 
converted.  A  large  per  cent  of  these  students 
go  out  to  become  teachers  in  district  schools, 
thus  enlarging  the  influence  of  this  school, 
known  as  the  Sue  Bennett  Memorial  School. 

The  Industrial  Home  and  School  at  Greene- 
ville,  Tenn.,  under  the  direction  of  Mrs.  E.  E. 
Wiley,  has  given  fostering  care  to  113  children 
during  the  year. 

On  the  Pacific  Coast  the  Society  carries  on 
night  schools  at  Los  Angeles,  for  Chinese;  and 
at  San  Francisco,  Oakland,  and  Alameda,  for 
Japanese.  Since  the  organization  of  these 
schools  more  than  five  hundred  and  fifty-nine 


^isLds  of  wo&k.  165 

Students  have  been  enrolled,  and  full  three 
score  have  become  Christians. 

At  Augusta,  Ga.,  in  an  annex  to  Paine  Col- 
lege, the  society  has  undertaken  the  industrial 
training  of  the  young  negro  women  who  are 
enrplled  as  students. 

Two  schools  among  the  Choctaw  Indians  of 
Mississippi  have  been  opened. 

Work  has  also  been  instituted  in  the  mines 
of  West  Virginia. 

CITY  MISSIONS. 

In  eleven  cities  the  auxiliaries  are  organized 
into  City  Mission  Boards,  employing  trained 
missionaries.  In  Atlanta,  Nashville,  and  Nor- 
folk small  beginnings  have  been  made  in  set- 
tlement work,  the  missionaries  living  in  needy 
8ectix)ns,  thus  getting  into  the  home  life  and 
close  to  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

The  Sunday  School. 

The  Sunday  school  work  is  conducted  for 
the  double  purpose  of  instructing  the  young 
in  a  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and 
of  training  them  in  the  habits  of  Christian 
work. 

In  each  congregation  the  Sunday  school  ia 
under  the  management  of  the  Quarterly  Con- 
ference, which  elects  the  superintendent  an- 
il * 


166  OUB   POLITY. 

nually  on  nomination  of  the  pastor,  who  is 
the  superintendent  in  chief  of  all  the  schools 
within  his  pastoral  charge.  The  pastor  and 
superintendent  together  select  the  teachers 
and  give  direction  to  their  work. 

The  Sunday  School  Department  is  under 
the  management  of  the  Sunday  School  Board, 
which  consists  of  five  members,  and  the  Sun- 
day School  Editor,  who  is  ex  officio  chairman. 
The  Board  is  elected  quadrennially  by  the 
General  Conference.  The  members  for  the 
current  quadrennium  (1902-06)  are  as  fol- 
lows: James  Atkins,  D.D.,  Nashville,  Tenn., 
Chairman;  John  O.  Willson,  D.D.,  Green- 
wood, S.  C.  ;  John  R.  Pepper,  Memphis, 
Tenn.;  B.  M.  Washburn,  Montgomery,  Ala., 
Secretary;  B.  M.  Bm'gher,  Dallas,  Tex.;  M. 
L.  Walton,  Woodstock,  Va.  D.  M.  Smith, 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  is  the  Treasurer  of  the 
Board. 

Statistics. — Number  of  schools,  14,396;  offi- 
cers and  teachers,  103,476;  scholars,  884,329. 
Total  in  schools,  987,805. 

Literature. — Sunday  School  Magazine,  48,- 
800;  Senior  Quarterly,  325,000;  Intermediate 
Quarterly,  300,000;  Home  Department  Quar- 
terly, 9,300;  Children's  Visitor,  68,500;  Illus- 
trated  Lesson   Paper,   130,000;    Our    Little 


FLBI.DS    OF   WORK.  167 

People,  205,000;  Olivet  Picture  Cards,  sets, 
70,000.     Total  circulation  in  1902,  1,156,600. 

Bible  TeacJiers^  Study  Circle. — This  de- 
partment of  training  work  was  fully  organ- 
ized by  the  General  Conference  of  1902,  and 
Dr.  H.  M.  Hamill  was  elected  by  the  Sunday 
School  Board  Superintendent  of  Training 
Work. 

The  course  for  teachers  is  as  follows: 

First  Course:  "History  of  Sunday  Schools," 
by  W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham,  D.D.;  "Bible 
Studies,"  by  A.  E.  Dunning,  D.D.;  "The 
Sunday  School  Teacher,"  by  H.  lili.  Hamill, 
D.D. 

Second  Course:  "Short  History  of  Metho- 
dism," by  J.  W.  Boswell,  D.D.;  "The  Books 
of  the  Bible,"  by  H.  M.  Hamill,  D.D.;  "The 
Doctrines  and  Polity  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,"  by  W.  F.  Tillett,  D.D., 
and  James  Atkins,  D.D. 

There  is  a  seventh  book  for  superintend- 
ents and  other  officers — "The  Organized  Sun- 
day School,"  by  Axtell.  On  the  completion 
of  the  first  course  a  certificate  is  issued  to 
each  teacher  who  meets  the  required  stand- 
ard, and  at  the  end  of  the  second  course  a  full 
diploma  is  awarded  by  the  Sunday  School  De- 
partment. 


168  OITB   POLITt. 

The  Sunday  School  and  Missions.— Bj  or- 
der of  the  General  Conference,  every  Sunday 
school  is  a  missionary  society.  The  order  of 
work  is  the  setting  apart  of  one  Sunday  in 
each  month  as  missionary  day,  the  collection 
on  which  goes  to  the  use  of  the  Board  of 
Missions;  and  in  October  a  Missionary  Rally 
Day,  with  a  collection  for  the  same  purpose. 
The  Sunday  schools  are  now  raising  an  extra 
fund  of  $10,000  to  endow  a  chair  in  the  Soo- 
chow  University.  The  amount  raised  by  our 
schools  for  missions  is  now  about  $50,000  a 
year. 

The  amount  raised  on  Children's  Day  for 
aiding  destitute  schools,  and  especially  for 
helping  Sunday  schools  in  foreign  mission 
jfields,  is  about  $15,000  per  year. 

The  Board  of  Church  Extension. 

This  Board  was  organized  in  1882.  The 
originator  of  it,  and  its  Secretary  to  the  time 
of  his  death,  was  Rev.  David  Morton,  D.D. 

The  purpose  of  the  Board  is  to  aid  in  the 
purchase  or  securing  of  church  lots,  and  the 
erection  or  securing  of  church  buildings  and 
parsonages.  The  office  of  the  Board  is  lo- 
cated at  Louisville,  Ky. 

Each  Annual  Conference  has  an  auxiliary 


FIBLDS    OF  WOBK.  169 

of  the  Church  Extension  Board,  which  is  en- 
titled to  retain  and  apply  within  the  bounds 
of  the  Conference  fifty  per  cent  of  all  funds 
coming  into  its  hands,  the  other  fifty  per 
cent  passing  to  the  Parent  Board  for  admin- 
istration. The  Board  has  a  loan  fund  of 
$200,000. 

The  General  and  Annual  Conference  Boards, 
since  their  organization,  have  aided  4,946 
Churches,  with  $942,642  in  gifts  and  $433,- 
645  in  loans.  West  of  the  Mississippi  1,816 
Churches,  have  been  helped;  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, 3,101;  and  in  the  mission  fields,  29. 
Amount  spent  in  helping  Churches  in  mission 
fields,  $21,532.  Amount  donated  to  Churches 
in  the  West  by  the  General  Board,  $272,430; 
in  the  East,  $148,437.  The  assessment  on  the 
Churches  for  the  year  1902-03  is  $125,460. 

The  oflScers  of  the  Board  are:  Presley  Me- 
guiar.  President,  Louisville,  Ky.;  R.  B.  Gil- 
bert, M.D.,  Vice  President,  Louisville,  Ky.; 
Rev.  P.  H.  Whisner,  Corresponding  Secre- 
tary, Louisville,  Ky.;  John  Ouerbacker, 
Treasurer,  Louisville,  Ky. 

The  Epwoeth  League. 

Acting  on  a  memorial  submitted  by  the 
Church  Conference  of  Trinity  Church,  Los 


170  OtTB   POLITY. 

Angeles,  Cal.,  the  General  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  at  its 
meeting  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  in  May, 
1890,  ordered  the  foundation,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Sunday  School  Department,  of 
Young  People's  Leagues  "for  the  promotion 
of  piety  and  loyalty  to  the  Church."  This 
was  the  organic  beginning  of  the  Epworth 
League  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  which  was  the  first  of  the  great  bod- 
ies of  Christendom  to  make  its  young  people's 
organization  a  part  of  its  corporate  life. 
Since  its  reorganization,  in  1894,  as  a  sepa- 
rate department  of  connectional  work,  the 
Epworth  League  has  chartered  5,839  Senior 
and  866  Junior  Chapters. 

The  several  departments  of  League  work 
are  in  healthy  condition.  About  6,000  vol- 
umes are  annually  circulated  in  its  Reading 
Courses.  The  General  Minutes  of  the  Church 
credit  to  it  between  $50,000  and  $75,000  con- 
tributed to  the  causes  of  the  Church.  The 
most  considerable  of  these  contributions  is 
made  to  the  cause  of  missions.  The  Epworth 
Era,  published  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  is  the  or- 
gan of  the  League.  The  year  just  closed  has 
been  the  most  prosperous  in  the  history  of 
the  organization. 


FISUDS    OF    WORK. 


171 


The  oflBcers  of  the  General  Epworth 
League  Board  are:  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler, 
President,  Atlanta,  Ga. ;  and  H.  M.  Du  Bose, 
D.D.,  General  Secretary. 

The  Boakd  of  Education. 

The  Board  of  Education  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  established  by 
the  General  Conference  at  Memphis,  in  May, 
1894. 

During  its  existence  of  eight  years  the 
Board  has  organized  and  is  now  operating  a 
teachers'  bureau;  raised  $25,000  for  a  new 
building  at  Paine  Institute,  known  as  "Hay- 
good  Memorial  Hall;"  stimulated  the  An- 
nual Conferences  to  lift  their  assessments 
for  education  from  a  total  of  $70,750  in  1897 
to  a  total  of  $93,160  in  1901;  conducted  a 
campaign  which  resulted  in  a  thank  offer- 
ing for  education  amounting  to  more  than 
$1,500,000;  secured  a  better  classification  of 
our  institutions,  and  their  more  harmonious 
adjustment  in  a  system. 

Statistics.— ThQ  latest  report  of  the  Board 
shows  that  the  Church  has  one  university,  18 
colleges,  103  secondary  schools,  8  affiliated 
schools,  and  64  mission  schools  of  all  grades, 
domestic    and  foreign.     In   connection   with 


172  OUB    POLITY. 

the  Biblical  Department  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity and  under  the  direction  of  its  faculty, 
the  Board  has  also  recently  established  a  Cor- 
respondence School  for  ministers  which  is  now 
in  successful  operation,  with  an  enrollment  of 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  pupils. 

The  officers  of  the  Board  are  as  follows: 
Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  President;  Bishop  E. 
R.  Hendrix,  Vice  President;  Chancellor  J.  H. 
Kirkland,  Recording  Secretary;  Rev.  J.  D. 
Hammond,  Corresponding  Secretary. 

The  Treasurer  of  the  Board  is  Mr.  D.  M. 
Smith,  Nashville,  Tenn. 


Statistics  of  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

South,  1901. 

Pastoral  charges 5,037 

Number  of  societies 17,898 

Traveling  preachers 6,293 

Local  preachers 4,983 

Members 1,505,241 

Total  membership 1,516,516 

Value  of  Publishing  House,  less  all  liabili- 
ties, $926,094.53. 

Combined  circulation  of  periodicals  issued 
by  the  House,  1,156,600  copies. 

The  Agents  for  the  House  for  1902-06  are 
Messrs.  Bigham  and  Smith,  Nashville,  Tenn. 


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